A California judge granted a retrial Wednesday in a case that had spawned a post-trial fight involving claims of negotiation mistakes, lying and abandonment. While acknowledging that plaintiffs attorney Michael Alder “engaged in misconduct by misleading the court,” the judge stopped short of dismissing the entire case. See related story: Jury, Interrupted: Judge Wrestles With Lawyer’s Costly ‘Mistake’

A man who molested his stepdaughter did not automatically lose parental rights to his male children, California’s Second District Court of Appeal has ruled, in an issue that has divided the state’s appellate courts.

A California attorney who was disbarred last year has pleaded not guilty to 17 felony counts of unlawfully taking $7,500 in client fees. Gerard Lionel Garcia-Barron was charged with grand theft of personal property; the unauthorized practice of law; and obtaining money, labor or property by false pretenses.

A California appeal panel has overturned the biggest jury verdict of 2008, a $604 million award won by ICO Global in a dispute involving Boeing. The decision is a vindication for Boeing counsel Munger, Tolles & Olson, and a costly one for Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, which took the case for ICO on contingency.

Employers got most of what they wanted in the long-awaited Brinker meal-and-rest-break opinion issued Thursday by the California Supreme Court. But workers won some victories, too, and the court appeared to stick up for class actions more broadly, in contrast to some recent U.S.