So far, 11 cases have been posited for potential bellwether trials in the California state litigation over alleged sudden acceleration in Toyota vehicles.

Kenneth Roger Markman, a solo practitioner in Los Angeles, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he smuggled 26 balloons containing heroin and methamphetamine into a holding facility where his client was being held pending a court appearance in an attempted carjacking case.

The biggest hero in Hollywood isn’t on the big screen — he’s in law. Shervin Lalezary, the reserve sheriff’s deputy who arrested the prime suspect in at least 50 home and car fires in the Los Angeles area over the weekend, is a real estate attorney with his own practice in Beverly Hills, Calif.

A federal judge in Los Angeles has granted summary judgment in one of the first cases to address the heightened standard for false patent-marking claims under the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act. Robert Nissen, lead counsel for the defendant, explains how the sweeping new patent law affected his case.

The bumpy ride toward the first trial against Toyota over sudden acceleration claims got bumpier when a Los Angeles judge told lead plaintiffs lawyers to tear up the complaints in their proposed bellwether cases and suggested that a wrongful death case might have a higher priority.