CJP settles charges against J.Murray

The DJ reports CJP settles discipline charges against retired 3rd District justice -- The trial set to begin this week would have featured a Who's Who of current and former Court of Appeal justices. Ex-Justice William J. Murray Jr. faced allegations that he chronically delayed issuing decisions in his cases.

Today's AI sanctions case

2/1 (per curiam) publishes this opinion today, granting a motion to strike an opening brief and sua sponte imposing monetary sanctions of $7500 to the court; and allowing appellant to file a new brief. 

    It is undisputed that appellant’s attorney, Fahim Farivar, filed a brief containing numerous fabricated quotations—that is, language falsely attributed to published decisions. By filing a brief that misrepresents legal authority, Farivar unreasonably violated longstanding rules of this court. Regardless of whether inaccuracies in a brief are the result of using artificial intelligence (AI) tools or some other drafting process, as Farivar and appellant argue occurred here, the signatory attorney is responsible for the content of the brief and subject to sanctions for inaccuracies it contains.
    Accordingly, we grant respondent’s motion to strike appellant Peiman Shayan’s opening brief. In addition, on the court’s own motion, we award monetary sanctions, payable to the court, against Farivar, and allow appellant to file a new brief.

... 

we strike appellant’s opening brief and require appellant to file, within 10 days of the issuance of this order, a corrected opening brief. Appellant’s corrected brief may differ from the version originally filed only to the extent it corrects or omits the fabricated citations and quotations in the original version. Appellant shall file and serve both a final version of the new brief as well as a redline version.

And also from 2/1, from last week, see the unpub'd part at pp. 34-37 here.

It is also presumptuous to assume he would not be “caught”; Attorney Lucas apparently believes we do not read cases cited in briefs. More disturbing is his apparent disregard of his duties as an officer of the court. Our legal system depends on the integrity of counsel and the bench. Citing nonexistent authority or misciting holdings of cases tarnishes the integrity of the process.
For these reasons, we will order Attorney Lucas to show cause why sanctions should not be imposed on him for his misuse of artificial intelligence in briefing this appeal. The order to show cause is issued concurrently with this opinion.

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See also at Law.com King & Spalding Appellate Attorney Dies While Climbing New Zealand's Tallest Mountain -- Kellam Conover, 44, had practiced for almost three years with the Am Law 50 firm after moving in early 2023 from Gibson Dunn & Crutcher. "He began his law career in November 2013 with Gibson Dunn and later clerked for Judge Raymond C. Fisher of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He returned to Gibson Dunn for more than six years before joining King & Spalding."

RIP Judge Kleinfeld (1945-2025)

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Mourns Passing of Judge Andrew Kleinfeld

Judges and staff of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit are mourning the loss of a distinguished jurist, Senior Circuit Judge Andrew Jay Kleinfeld, who died Friday, November 7, after a long illness. Born on June 12, 1945, he was 80 years old.

2d District pro tem update

The following are currently sitting on assignment:

• Justice Peter J. Siggins (Retired) of the First District Court of Appeal will be sitting Pro Tem in Division Two until December 31, 2025 

• Judge Sunjay Kumar (Retired) of the Los Angeles County Superior Court will be sitting Pro Tem in Division Five until February 17, 2025 

• Judge Denise Hippach of the Santa Barbara County Superior Court will be sitting Pro Tem in Division Six until December 31, 202 

New FRAP & Circuit Rules now effective!

 Happy December 1! That means new federal appellate rules are in effect:

December 2025 9th Circuit Rule Revisions here

December 2025 FRAP Revisions here

The 9th pivots right

Bloomberg Law has Trump’s Mark on Ninth Circuit Tested as Challenges Progress

• Trump reshaped the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit during his first term. He flipped four seats once held by judges tapped by Democrats and left the court with nearly as many Republican-appointed active judges as Democratic ones. The appeals court’s more balanced composition increases the odds that progressive litigants challenging Trump’s second term agenda might wind up with a panel of majority Republican-appointed judges. The Ninth Circuit has 16 Democratic and 13 Republican appointees. It also makes their chances of winning a case heard en banc—a process where a randomly selected group of active judges rethinks a panel ruling—more of a wildcard.

• ‘Hard Pivot’ The first Trump administration inherited a Ninth Circuit with more than twice the number of Democratic-appointed judges as Republican appointed ones, plus several vacancies. Trump then installed 10 judges on the court between 2018 and 2020.

• With the confirmation of Eric Tung, his first Ninth Circuit pick of his second term, Trump has appointed more than a third of the active bench, and 11 of the court’s 13 Republican-picked judges. The last time that court that many Republican appointees was in 1996

Marray CJP hearing vacated

The DJ has Misconduct hearing for retired justice is vacated -- The Commission on Judicial Performance vacated Monday's scheduled hearing for retired justice William J. Murray Jr., a move that often signals a pending resolution.

A hearing before special masters appointed by the California Supreme Court was scheduled to begin Monday at Sacramento County Superior Court, where both sides would have presented evidence and examined witnesses. On Friday, however, the commission issued an order vacating the hearing date and said only that a further public announcement would be issued "forthwith."

5th Dist. pro tem update

The following are currently sitting on assignment in the Fifth District:

• Judge Gregory T. Fain of the Fresno County Superior Court will be sitting pro tempore until November 30, 2025. 

• Judge Amy K. Guerra of the Fresno County Superior Court will be sitting pro tempore until January 23, 2026. 

Too many en bancs?

Most practitioners in most courts complain that there aren't enough en banc petitions granted.... Meanwhile over in the 4th Circuit... the NLJ has 4th Circuit Judge's Worry of En Banc Overuse Spurs Back-and-Forth -- “By subjecting litigation to the en banc detour, we shield it from Supreme Court review while the often year-long proceeding plays itself out," Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III wrote. "Shielding significant cases from the Supreme Court for prolonged periods can have deleterious consequences.”

• In a concurrence, Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III argued that the full court hasn’t been as sparingly as it should in conducting en banc polls. Given limited judicial resources, he said mere disagreement with a panel’s decision is rarely enough of a reason to grant review.
• Under the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, en banc hearings are disfavored and should only be be ordered if there’s an intra-circuit conflict or the proceeding “involves a question of exceptional importance.”
• Wilkinson argued it’s more appropriate for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide which questions are of exceptional importance and deserve review through certiorari petitions.
• In a separate concurrence, Judges Stephanie Thacker and Robert King pushed back against the idea that the circuit runs the risk of holding en banc hearings too often. They worried Wilkinson’s viewpoint could have an “unintended chilling effect.”
• “[I] acknowledge that en banc proceedings are ‘not favored,’" Thacker wrote in a concurrence King joined. "But it is not an act of anarchy when we as a court work within the rules to correct what a majority of us believe to be an error. Nor is doing so an ‘enormous distraction’ from our workload.”
• The Fourth Circuit held 17 full court hearings for the most recent five years, compared to 55 en banc hearings from 1995 to 1999.

First oral argument article

 Law360 has a long q&a article: Prep, Panic & Poise: Inside An Associate's First Oral Argument

• Countless lawyers have frozen in the face of intense pressure — it's a universal human response, but it usually doesn't end in excruciating embarrassment. Holmes described his startling memory loss — and what happened next — in an interview with Law360 about the preparations, experience and lessons of his inaugural argument.
• In the run-up to the argument, how was your confidence? Oh, I was nervous. I was very nervous. But I've talked to a lot of partners here — people who have argued over and over again, and who are incredibly good — and they get nervous, too, and that made me feel better. You learn to use energy positively and make sure you can handle anything. And the only way to do that is to know [your case] really, really, really well. So, I am actually grateful I felt nervous. If I had been complacent, I might not have been as well-prepared.

RIP Justice King 1931-2025

The DJ has Donald B. King, 1931-2025 -- Judge Donald B. King, a pioneering force in family law, transformed divorce and custody practice through mediation, scholarship and decades of judicial service. He died at 94, leaving a profound statewide legacy

King was 94 when he died Nov. 15 of pancreatic cancer, with Nikki, his wife of 68 years, and their son, Jordan, by his side, his friend Jon Eisenberg, a retired appellate attorney, wrote in an obituary statement. A celebration of life will be announced. King was born on Feb. 24, 1931 in San Francisco. ... After nearly two decades of private practice, King served on the San Francisco Superior Court from 1976 to 1982 and then the appellate court until 1996.

Collateral order appeals re proceeding pseudonymously

If a trial court grants an order allowing parties to proceed using pseudonyms, is that order appealable? Today's opinion from 2/2 here says "yes," reasoning thusly: 

Orders concerning the sealing of documents are appealable as collateral orders. This is true whether the order is to seal or to unseal. An order to redact a document is also appealable as a collateral order. While there is no specific case applying this rule in the context of an order allowing a party to proceed under a pseudonym, we conclude the reasoning is the same. “Much like closing the courtroom or sealing a court record, allowing a party to litigate anonymously impacts a First Amendment public access right.” Here, the order is final on the collateral matter of allowing the parties to proceed with pseudonyms and is not subject to future proceedings.

[The MetNews has Judge Erred in Allowing Plaintiffs to Sue as ‘Doe’ and ‘Roe’ -- Opinion Says Parties Seeking Anonymity Must Make Showing That Public’s Right to Know Is Outweighed]

Old joke in hot dissent...

Law.com has In Scathing Dissent, Judge Says Colleagues Cut Him From Deliberative Process

• In an unusually scathing dissent, federal appellate Judge Jerry Smith on Wednesday accused his colleagues of cutting him out of the deliberative process for a ruling that blocked Texas Republicans’ redrawn congressional maps that were backed by President Donald Trump.
• Sitting on a three-judge district court panel, Smith used his 104-page dissent to contend that U.S. District Judges Jeffrey Brown and David Guaderrama had purposefully published their majority decision on Tuesday without waiting for Smith's dissent or giving him enough time to complete it.
• In his dissent, Smith accused Brown of deciding the case based on his policy preferences rather than the law and of going beyond his authority as a federal judge.
• “In 37 years as a federal judge, I’ve served on hundreds of three-judge panels. This is the most blatant exercise of judicial activism that I have ever witnessed,” Smith wrote in the dissent filled with barbs against Brown.
• “There’s the old joke: What’s the difference between God and a federal district judge?" Smith added. "Answer: God doesn’t think he’s a federal judge.”

2d District window closure Dec. 10 (noon to 2)

The Clerk’s Office window will be closed on Wednesday, December 10, 2025, from 12:00 PM PST to 2:00 PM PST. A drop box on the 2nd floor, next to the Clerk’s Office at 300 South Spring Street, Los Angeles, will be available for the public to drop off documents.

CEB titles to leave Lexis

CEB has two treatises used by CA appellate lawyers: California Civil Appellate Practice (3d ed. 2 volumes) and California Civil Writ Practice (4th ed. 2 volumes). These will be leaving Lexis soon:

This is a reminder that after December 31, 2025, CEB’s California-specific content will be removed from LexisNexis. If you currently rely on LexisNexis to access CEB’s trusted California law resources, that access will end. To avoid disruptions, now is the time to transition to OnLAW Pro — CEB’s exclusive legal research and practical guidance platform.

Lexis, of course, has the 2-volume Matthew Bender Practice Guide: California Civil Appeals & Writs (by Klatchko & Shatz)  

2/6 to hold ACE session

Court of Appeal to Hold Education Program for High School Students -- On Thursday, the Second Appellate District, Division Six (Ventura), will hold a special oral argument outreach session for high school students.

Also, the Bar Association of San Francisco’s Appellate and Criminal Justice Sections are hosting an in-person CLE program on the US Supreme Court Criminal Law Roundup. Speakers are Professors Jeffrey Fisher, from Stanford, and Kate Weisburd, from UC Law SF. One hour of appellate specialization credit. It’s the Monday after Thanksgiving, December 1, from 5:00 – 6:15 p.m., at the McGuire Woods firm in San Francisco. Stick around to network after the program.

funny glitch...

In a funny glitch, new Justice Arlan Harrell's online bio is appearing on every District's "Justices" webpage, not just the 5th District's! Talk about pro teming!

4/2 publishes order re AI sanctions

Yesterday 4/2 published this order imposing sanctions on a lawyer who cited AI hallucinated cases (i.e., cases that do not exist) in a petition for writ of supersedeas and in an AOB. The court orders sanctions of $1,750 and directs the clerk to notify the State Bar about the sanctions.

The MetNews article is Lawyer Sanctioned for ‘Spurious Citations’ in Petition, Brief

Trump v. Biden appointees article

Law.com has Trump Judges Outdo Biden Appointees in Total Opinions, Out-of-Circuit Cites, Study Finds

President Donald Trump’s federal appellate appointees produced more opinions and were cited outside of their circuits more frequently than former President Joe Biden's appointees, according to a study measuring the performance of young judges in a two-year period.

A preliminary draft of the study analyzed the performance of all federal judges under age 55 who were active between January 2023 and December 2024, using total opinions as a measure of productivity and out-of-circuit citations as a measure of influence, among other data points.