Dismissed Twice, Still Not Over: California Limits the Two-Dismissal Rule

Horst Legal CounselAppellate Law, Business Litigation

If you’re defending a lawsuit and the plaintiff drops it, then files somewhere else and drops it again, you’d be forgiven for thinking the matter is finished. There’s even a federal rule that seems to promise as much. The California Supreme Court just made clear that the two-dismissal rule doesn’t reach nearly as far as many defendants assume. In Doe …

California Courts Can Now Ask Why You Keep Firing the Judge

Horst Legal CounselAppellate Law, California Regulatory Law

Picture a lawsuit where the other side doesn’t like the judge. Not because the judge ruled against them on the merits, but because the judge once held them accountable. So they make the judge go away. Not from one case, but from every case like yours, filing the same boilerplate paperwork over and over until the court has no choice …

California’s “Actually Viewed” Defense Just Died in Data Breach Cases

Horst Legal CounselBusiness Litigation, California Regulatory Law, Digital Law

If your company handles other people’s sensitive data through a software vendor, two questions are now urgent. First, can you still rely on the longstanding California defense that says no liability attaches unless an unauthorized party actually viewed the data? And second, when a vendor sits between you and the end users whose information was exposed, who exactly has the …