If your business buys, sells, or collects charged-off consumer debt in California, there’s a habit worth breaking. When a collection complaint goes out with the wrong paperwork attached, the instinct is to amend it, swap in the right documents, and move on. But a new decision from the Court of Appeal says that instinct won’t protect you. The defect is …
Horst Legal Counsel | April 2026 Check fraud targeting businesses and professionals has become a routine hazard of commercial life. The scheme is almost always the same: someone poses as a client or counterpart, sends a check that looks legitimate, asks you to wire money once it “clears,” and disappears the moment you do. Banks know this pattern well enough …
Horst Legal Counsel | April 2026 If your company does construction work for a California city or county, you need to know about a case the Second District Court of Appeal just published. The short version: any private individual with knowledge of fraud against public funds can sue you under the California False Claims Act, and the procedural technicalities you …
California Businesses Cannot Recover Every Legal Fee in Cascading Litigation Horst Legal Counsel | April 2026 Someone torpedoes your deal. You spend north of a million dollars in court forcing the sale through. You win. Then you sue the people who caused the mess in the first place, and you win again. But the second lawsuit cost you another $841,000 …
The Rules Now Apply to Everyone Horst Legal Counsel | March 2026 If you have been following California’s growing body of appellate authority on AI-generated legal citations, you have watched the courts build a wall, one published opinion at a time. First came the warnings to attorneys. Then came the sanctions. Then, in Torres Campos v. Munoz, the consequences reached …
Court of Appeal Holds Prior Contract Rates May Still Matter After the Contract Ends Horst Legal Counsel | March 2026 When a contract ends, parties often assume the old deal is no longer part of the story. This case is a reminder that assumption is not always right. In Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center v. Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., …