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 …
California’s False Claims Act Just Got Harder to Dismiss
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 …
The Tort of Another Has Limits:
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 …
Lessons from Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center v. Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc.
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., …
Grant v. Chapman University:
Marketing “Face-to-Face” Experience Does Not Create Enforceable Contract for In-Person Classes When operations get disrupted, customers look for refunds. Students are no different. During COVID-era campus closures, many sued universities for tuition back based on an “implied promise” of in-person education. This California Court of Appeal just rejected this effort in a case involving Chapman University, finding that Chapman had …
Shayan v. Shakib: California Lawyers Continue to Hallucinate, and the Court of Appeal Doesn’t Care How
Just two weeks ago, we posted a summary of what was then the latest in a growing series of appellate cases dealing with AI-hallucinated citations. Already, however, it has lost its novelty. Earlier this week, Shayan v. Shakib became the most recent reminder of California lawyers’ responsibility for the accuracy of the material that they submit to the courts. It …





