To embed, copy and paste the code into your website or blog:
Trust and estate litigators, and mediators, are buzzing over a recent decision from the California Court of Appeal that validates mandatory mediation of trust disputes.
In
Breslin v. Breslin (Case No. B301382, decided January 26, 2021), the appellate court held that a California probate judge may order the private mediation of trust disputes and then disallow the objections of any nonparticipating parties to a settlement agreement reached in mediation.
The upshot of the case, assuming the opinion becomes final, is that probate judges may be more inclined to require pre-trial mediation and parties will need to participate to avoid waiving their beneficial interests.
Toggle open close
John G. Malcolm: Welcome, everybody, to our virtual Joseph Story Lecture. My name is John Malcolm. I’m the Vice President of the Institute for Constitutional Government, but more germane for this event is that I’m also the Director of the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies. Because we are in the midst of a pandemic and these are unusual times, I am interviewing General Meese here in his home.
Ed, I have to tell you, this is a particular pleasure for me. I remember when we first met. It was either 1990 or 1991, and I was a baby Assistant U.S. Attorney in Atlanta and was in charge of inviting speakers to come to the national convention for the Federalist Society. I decided to take a flyer and invite you to come speak at a program on the overfederalization of crime, and to my amazement, not only did you accept, but from the first time I met you, you insisted that I call you Ed. I never dreamed that at some point in my career, I would have t
February 15, 2021 - 2:41pm
American Juris Link, a new right-wing legal center with close ties to the State Policy Network, is actively working to track and support right-wing legal challenges to upend COVID-19 health restrictions, fight workers rights to unionize, and coordinate legal strategies and amici.
Originally registered as an independent nonprofit under the name Litigators for Liberty in late 2019, American Juris Link (AJL) was incubated by the State Policy Network (SPN) based on extensive strategic planning and input from leading litigators and philanthropists, according to a job listing with the right-wing head-hunting firm Talent Market.
In an SPN webinar titled, Protecting American Freedom Through Strategic Litigation, AJL s founder and president Carrie Ann Donnell describes AJL as basically like the SPN for litigators. SPN is a web of right-wing think tanks and tax-exempt organizations in 50 states, Washington, D.C., Canada, and the United Kingdom.
6:08
A watchdog group says legislation presented by Gov. Kristi Noem as a nonprofit protection effort could hide political contributions.
Noem sent her lawyer, Mark Miller, to testify on the bill during legislative committee hearings.
“What is this bill about? It’s really about the American way of life,” Miller told a House committee.
Miller said privacy is a fundamentally democratic principle. He gave the example of Thomas Paine, who anonymously inspired American revolutionaries with his pamphlet called “Common Sense,” and several Founding Fathers, who wrote the Federalist Papers under the pen name “Publius.”
“They wanted their privacy, and even then, at the nation’s founding, they were entitled to it,” Miller said.
Learning
Efforts to change selective admissions policies fuel parent activism Min
Lee Cheng graduated from San Francisco’s Lowell High School in 1985. He counts himself one of the lucky ones. Lowell High, which was the only local public school specifically for high-performing students, had a strict racial-quota admissions policy when he applied. No racial or ethnic group could comprise more than 40 percent of the school’s student body. The rule was aimed at desegregating the district, but even as a teenager, Cheng found it unfair. It meant that Asian students had to score higher on the entrance exam than white students, who in turn had to score higher on the exam than Black and Hispanic applicants. Cheng’s friend his orchestra partner was not admitted, though if he had been of a different race he might have earned a seat. The boy’s parents were poor immigrants his father a waiter and his mother a seamstress. “He would have gotten in, but for being Chine