This Litigation Shortcut Could Cost You Your Right to Appeal

Horst Legal CounselAppellate Law, Business Litigation

Summary When your business files a lawsuit, an early ruling from the judge can change the entire course of the case. If that ruling goes against you, it may be tempting to look for the fastest way to get in front of the Court of Appeal. A recent California Supreme Court decision shows why one shortcut, voluntarily dismissing your case …

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 …

The Tort of Another Has Limits:

Horst Legal CounselAppellate Law, Business Litigation, Legal Updates, Real Estate Law

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 …