by Andy Chen | Apr 22, 2024 | California, Federal, New York
In today’s post, I’m going to try and explain the concept of Discovery in civil cases and what the boundaries or scope of that discovery is. I’ll use some examples from California law as well as New York law and also some tidbits from federal law as well. Depending on the court that your case is in (for instance, California Superior Court versus US District Court), one set of rules and laws will apply, but not the other. Be forewarned, though, that the topic of civil discovery can get very, very, very complicated. Lots of specific requirements apply. It can absolutely get very frustrating. It’s similar to how taxes work and why, for instance, certain tax rules make no logical sense when compared to the real world. The vast majority of people, of course, just follow the rules when it comes to taxes and don’t bother worrying about why tax rules are the way they are. When it comes to discovery, in my opinion, a lot of these complexities are unnecessary and the whole discovery process could be made easier and more efficient without prejudice or harm to any litigant. However, it’s not up to me — at least not yet — and instead it depends on the whims and fancies of politicians and legislatures. It is what it is. Having said that, let me start with a basic definition of what “discovery” actually is: it’s the process in litigation where the various parties can seek or obtain evidence or facts that are relevant to the case. As the adage goes, each party puts all of their cards on...
by Andy Chen | Jul 12, 2023 | California, Enterprise, Law, in real life
I’ve written a few posts now about Limited Liability Companies (LLC) in California. In prior posts, for example, I’ve discussed whether an LLC can be used to form a law firm in California. I’ve also described the minimization approach law schools in the US typically use when teaching about business entities, like an LLC. I’m going to talk about LLCs in this post, but the basic logic I’m describing will apply to other types of entities also. In this post, I am going to expand on this idea of minimizing tax and legal liability. Most law schools start there and, unfortunately, also end there which means there is a bias towards always forming an LLC because, essentially, why would wanting to minimize tax and legal liability ever be a bad thing? In my view, it’s not a bad thing, but it might not be as good a thing as you initially think. The reason is because of Cost-Benefit Analysis. In other words, forming an LLC will result in several benefits, advantages, or positives. If you just stop there, then you should clearly always form an LLC. Realistically, of course, forming an LLC will also involve certain costs, drawbacks, or negatives. This should not be a groundbreaking concept to anyone because the same is true for all decisions you make in life. What ultimately matters when deciding to form an LLC is — like it is in other arenas in life — what the net result is. Do the benefits of having an LLC outweigh the costs of having an LLC? One relevant consideration here would, for instance, be whether...
by Andy Chen | Jul 9, 2023 | California, Enterprise, Law, in real life
A lot of people now have side hustles or are otherwise self-employed. If you’re one of these people, you might have wondered at some point whether or not you should form a legal entity of some kind, such as a Limited Liability Company (LLC). Doing so is much easier now than it was, say, even 5 years ago. Many websites advertise that they will help you form an LLC in California, Nevada, or Delaware in 10 minutes or less for $99, for example. In this post, I’m going to discuss just LLCs given how common and popular they are. They are, by no means, the only entity out there. In 2021, for example, I wrote a post about whether you can use an LLC in California to form a law firm. Specifically, I’m going to describe something simple, namely how the question of “Should I form…” is taught in law school. Law schools in the US often address this topic in a survey course discussing business organizations or entities. At my law school, the survey course was, in fact, called “Business Organizations”. That course analyzed this question from the perspective of minimization. In other words, when forming a business or running a business, the typical owner is concerned about minimizing two things: Minimizing their legal liability. In other words, if their business does get into legal trouble of some kind (e.g. lawsuit from a customer or vendor, etc.), the business wants to limit the scope of their potential loss or exposure. Minimizing their tax liability. I’m sure you’ve heard many, many stories about how very large publicly-traded companies that...
by Andy Chen | Jul 4, 2023 | California, Criminal law, Law School Help
In looking over my blog posts, it appears I started — or at least had aspirations to start — making posts aimed at law school students. Specifically, I wanted to add some real-world details to the offenses that law school only teaches in a general or basic way. To be fair to law schools, this general or basic way is by necessity as the school has no idea which jurisdiction, if any, the student will ultimately practice law in and how that jurisdiction defines that particular offense. Many legal offenses are defined in terms of a criteria-based approach. In other words, the offense in question (e.g. robbery) has a set number of requirements or criteria that have to be satisfied. If the “net evidence” shows that these criteria have been satisfied or proven to a specific standard (e.g. beyond a reasonable doubt), then the defendant will be guilty or liable of that offense. I say “net evidence” here because you should remember that the decision of guilt or liability will be made after considering (1) the evidence tending to show guilt or liability as well as (2) the evidence tending to not show guilt or liability. There is no quantitative way to compute what evidence cancels what, but the idea of a net balance should still make sense. In other words, is there ultimately more credible and reliable evidence showing guilt or liability or is there more credible and reliable evidence showing that the defendant is not guilty or not liable? If all of that made sense, I’m going to talk about the crime of robbery in this post...
by Andy Chen | Jun 29, 2023 | California, Statutes... and stuff
In today’s post, I’m going to go over what is often referred to as the “Pink Tax” or the practice of charging more for products aimed at women simply even when the same product for men, for instance, has a lower price. In September of 2022, the California Legislature passed Assembly Bill (AB) 1287 which became effective as of January 1, 2023. AB 1287 added a new section — Section 51.14 — to the California Civil Code. As always, I encourage to actually look up the entire text of the statute section. I am only going to point out the major parts of Section 51.14. The main part, in my opinion, is Section 51.14(b), which says: “A person, firm, partnership, company, corporation, or business shall not charge a different price for any two goods that are substantially similar if those goods are priced differently based on the gender of the individuals for whom the goods are marketed and intended.” If you’re wondering what terms like “business” or “substantially similar” mean, that’s described in Section 51.14(a). As an example, “substantially similar” is defined as (1) there being no substantial difference in the materials used to make the item, (2) the intended use of the items are similar, (3) the functional design and features of the items are similar, and (4) the brand of the items is the same or the brands of the items are owned by the same party. I bolded and underlined “and” above to emphasize that (1) to (4) must all be true simultaneously in order for the items to be “substantially similar” within the meaning of...
by Andy Chen | Jun 26, 2023 | California, Family Law
If you’re involved in a California family law case of any kind where there are minor children present, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of terms such as “joint legal custody”, “joint physical custody”, etc. Terms like these are not difficult to understand, but many terms in court are used so frequently that lawyers, judges, etc. will assume their meaning is obvious. This is especially true in family court where, at least in my experience, most people are unfamiliar with the laws and procedures that are used. A huge amount of unnecessary confusion results, which is obviously not helpful to anyone getting a good outcome. In this post, therefore, I’m going to define these terms, tell you what statute sections they come from, and any practical commentary that pops to mind. Joint Legal Custody (CA Family Code Section 3003) For whatever reason, California’s Family Code doesn’t define “legal custody” or “physical custody”, but rather defines those terms with the modifier of “joint” or “sole” instead. Joint Legal Custody is defined in Section 3003 of the California Family Code as: “’Joint legal custody’ means that both parents shall share the right and the responsibility to make the decisions relating to the health, education, and welfare of a child.” I’ve bolded and underlined the terms “health, education, and welfare” because that’s fundamentally what legal custody is all about. When it comes to minor children (again, this is a child under age 18 typically), imagine something that the parent would have to give permission or authorization for regarding that child. This might be, for instance, a permission slip for the child to...
