Attorneys should be careful when entering into business transactions with friends that have also been clients, as Rule 3-300 of the Rules of Professional Conduct provides that a member of the State Bar shall not enter into a business transaction with a client unless certain requirements have been satisfied.

A flooring contractor was found to have negligently caused a fire started by a worker’s discarded cigarette that damaged a homeowners’ property in the amount of $424,050.

A dishonest notary can corrupt the chain of title of real property with a void deed by falsely notarizing the forged signature of the grantor, with no recourse if the statute of limitations has passed.

Judicial foreclosure sales appear to be so rare in Riverside County that the judicial sale that I recently attended was also used as a training vehicle for several uniformed deputies in the sheriff’s office.

California Code of Civil Procedure section 998 has generated a lot of published appellate opinions over the years.

What is the client to do when his or her attorney is ordered suspended by the California Supreme Court and therefore unable to practice law?

Under certain circumstances, an injured person working in your home can file a civil lawsuit against you as the homeowner, rather than being limited to workers compensation. A recent California Supreme Court decision held that this is the case and defined the standard of care to be used in a case brought by an injured employee working on a homeowner’s substantial remodeling project. (Cortez v. Abich (2011) 51 Cal. 4th 285.)

Contractors should be aware of the requirement that stop notices be served on the particular branch of the construction lender actually “administering or holding” the loan funds, per California Civil Code section 3083.

A brief legal consultation before signing a contract can save money and headaches later.

Spending a few hundred dollars for an attorney to review a proposed agreement of any sort is a good business practice as it can save thousands of dollars and headaches in the long run before the transaction and the relationship have soured.

While most construction contractors and material suppliers know about serving the preliminary 20-day notice in order to qualify for a mechanic’s lien and/or stop notice, few focus on the proof of service requirement in California Civil Code section 3097.1(a).

Beginning January 1, 2011, the California Evidence Code, as applied in civil cases, will no longer govern California State Bar attorney disciplinary hearings. The new Rules of Procedure, new rule 7.12, provide that the hearing need not be conducted according to technical rules of evidence.