Bad-Faith Verdicts Are Reshaping First-Party UM/UIM Disputes
First-party UM/UIM bad-faith claims used to settle quietly for policy limits plus a nuisance premium. A run of recent verdicts and the way…
Category
Case Law & Settlements
Appellate decisions, verdicts, and notable settlements from California courts.
California PI Appellate Decisions Worth Tracking This Quarter
Every quarter the Court of Appeal quietly rearranges the furniture in plaintiff personal-injury practice. This digest pulls the doctrinal t…
Premises Foreseeability After Castaneda: Landlord Duty on a Sliding Scale
California courts still decide landlord duty on the Rowland factors, but the real fight is over how much foreseeability the plaintiff must…
Lien-Based Billing Testimony After Pebley: Winning the 402 Fight
The Pebley doctrine is settled, but the admissibility fights have moved downstream to foundation and §402 screening. Here is what Californi…
CCP 2034 Expert Disclosure Compliance: The Cases That Punish Weak Designations
The CCP 2034.300 mandatory exclusion sanction has tossed otherwise strong plaintiff cases over declaration language that looked harmless un…
Discovery Sanctions Trends: What California Courts Are Actually Hitting in PI Practice
A read across recent California trial-court sanctions orders shows a tighter pattern than the bar treats it as. Judges are skipping the thr…
Motions to Compel in Trucking Cases: ELD, Dispatch, and Prior-Incident Discovery
The fight in a trucking case is often won or lost before trial, in the order on a motion to compel. Electronic logging data, dispatch recor…
California Motion in Limine Practice: What Survives and What Fails in 2026
The motion-in-limine docket is where most California PI trials are won or lost before the first juror sits. Here is what trial courts still…
Daubert in California: The Expert-Challenge Cases Worth Knowing
California is not a Daubert state, but the gatekeeping is real. Sargon, the Kelly rule, and Sanchez each give you a different lever to excl…
New York's 2026 Modified Comparative Fault Reform for Auto Cases
New York converted from pure to modified comparative negligence for motor vehicle cases effective with legislation signed May 27, 2026. The…
DC Circuit Stay of the FMCSA Non-Domiciled CDL Rule
The DC Circuit issued a stay of the FMCSA's interim final rule that would have revoked non-domiciled commercial driver licenses issued to h…
When Lay Testimony Is Enough for Conscious Pain and Suffering
A 2026 South Carolina Court of Appeals ruling confirmed that a medical expert is not required to establish conscious pain and suffering whe…