THE STATE OF THE COURTS

Transcription

1 February 2015 This Month s Meeting: THE STATE OF THE COURTS Wednesday, February 25, 2015 Guest Speaker Supervising Judge, The Honorable Margaret Bernal Rio Hondo Country Club Old River School Road Downey, CA Hosted Cocktail Hour: Dinner/Program: SEDBA Members $40.00 NON-Members $ :30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. RSVP Required by Tuesday, February 24, 2015 For more information, call Irma Puente (562) Or Irma@sedba.org Meeting Sponsored by: John Rydell, A Plus Appraisals & Joey Hernandez, Insurance Solutions 1 HOUR MCLE CREDIT All attorneys, law students, court staff and non-legal professionals are welcome!

2 President's Message I want to take this opportunity to say thank you to all of you who were able to Attend our 52nd Gala and Installation last month. I think I can speak for everyone when I say it was a major success and that everyone had a great time. This was a great event, in part due to the hard work and contributions of many people involved, including Past President Diana Fukushima, Treasurer Maria Puente Porras, Irma Puente, and our Masters of Ceremony Judges 1. Lillian Vega Jacobs and Peter Espinoza. I would also like to send a special thank you out to our Keynote Speaker, Associate Justice Bill Bedsworth of the 4th District Court of Appeal. Lastly, I would be remiss if I also did not thank our always supportive Southeast District bench officers, such as Judge Margaret Bernal, Ana Maria Luna, and Yvonne Sanchez. There was a great turn out at last month s Installation of bench officers from the Southeast District, and we really appreciated their support. This year looks to be an exciting year ahead for the Southeast Bar, as we have a lot of great events getting planned (our annual summer Open House, the Randy Kramer Poker Tournament, a turnaround trip to Primm Nevada (MCLE hopefully included), our first annual SEDBA Golf Tournament, and our big event of the year, a 4-5 day trip to Washington DC in June for those attorneys who want to be sworn into the US Supreme Court Bar. We are, also, getting some great speakers for this year, like Criminal Defense attorney, John Barnett, Orange County District Attorney, Tony Rackauckas, and Deputy Executive Director of the California State Bar, Robert Hawley to come back and give us another great legal ethics presentation. Our first general membership meeting of 2015 will be on February 25, 2015 at the Rio Hondo Events Center. There will be a cocktail hour from 5:30pm to 6:30pm, with the dinner & program to immediately follow after that. Make sure to mark calendars for this event, as well as the rest of the fourth Wednesdays in every month, as this is when we have our monthly meetings. These meetings are a great opportunity to earn MCLE credits, network with other attorneys, and simply enjoy the company and fellowship of the other attorneys and judges of the Southeast District. I encourage all members to come out and partake in our monthly meetings. This month s meeting will be a State of the Court Address to be given by our own Judge Margaret Bernal. Judge Bernal was such a hit last year giving this presentation that we asked her to come back again this year and let us know what is the current State of the Court. So I hope you can come out and join us this month at this informative event. I look forward to seeing you at the meeting this month! Your President, Trevor Michels LA/ SEBAMB Page 2

3 SAVE THE DATE February 25, 2015 March 25, 2015 April 22, 2015 May 27, 2015 June 15, 2015 July 22, 2015 August 26, 2015 September 23, 2015 October 28, 2015 November 18, 2015 State of the Courts To be Determined To be Determined To be Determined DC Trip Summer Mixer Annual Randy Kramer Poker Tournament To be Determined To be Determined Judges Night December 2015 Holiday Party LA/ SEBAMB Page 3

4 CONGRATULATIONS! Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lillian Vega Jacobs Appointed by Governor Jerry Brown Enrobbed December 2014 Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Elect Chris J. Frisco Elected 2014 Term to start January 5, 2015 LA/ SEBAMB Page 4

5 Can You Repeat That Please? The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals published an opinion in Garcia v. Commissioner of Social Security on September 23, Southeast Bar Association member Lawrence Rohlfing represented the plaintiff, Stephanie Garcia. The Court panel consisted of Chief Judge Kozinski, Senior Judge O'Scannlain, and Judge Murguia. The case turned on psychological testing purchased by the Social Security Administration. The psychologist did not have time to administer the verbal portions of the IQ testing, administering only the performance portion of the test. The Court reasoned that IQ testing forms an important part of the disability analysis in cases turning on deficient intellectual functioning. The Social Security Administration also considers the lowest score in assessing the ability to engage in work activity. Because Garcia had undergone testing as a child that suggested higher performance results than verbal or full-scale IQ, the failure of the Social Security Administration to order the additional testing violated the duty to fully and fairly develop the record and resulted in prejudice to Garcia. In a footnote, the Court noted that its holding in Garcia conflicted with a prior unpublished opinion of the Court. The Court stated that it was not bound by the earlier nonprecedential decision. Chief Judge Kozinki and Judge Reinhardt wrote a piece for California Lawyer, Please Don t Cite This! See The opinion and its rejection of a prior memorandum disposition as not having precedential weight runs fully consistent with the Chief s prior position. Mr. Rohlfing ran into the non-precedent buzz saw of then-judge Kozinski more than a decade ago in Hart v. Massanari, 266 F.3d 1054 (9th Cir. 2001). Judge Kozinski took umbrage at the LA/ SEBAMB Page 5

6 citation of a non-published opinion in the appellant s brief. Hart disassembled the notion put forth in Anastasoff v. U.S., 223 F.3d 898 (8th Cir. 2000) that rules against citation of unpublished opinions would violate the Constitution, Article III. The first question out of Chief Judge Kozinski at oral argument in Garcia: We have an unpublished disposition and I know how fond you are of unpublished dispositions. So the cases go full circle with the judges reminding the repeat players before the Court of their prior missteps and foiled attempts to shape or misshape the law. Mr. Rohlfing has argued disability and other benefit entitlement claims in over a hundred claims before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. He presented briefs in three cases to the United States Supreme Court. Mr. Rohlfing argued Black & Decker Disability Plan v. Nord to the United States Supreme Court in April LA/ SEBAMB Page 6

7 Don't Forget to Renew Your SEDBA Membership for 2015! SEDBA Members enjoy great benefits including: Discounted rates for MCLE Membership Meetings. MCLE dinner meetings increasing to $50 per person. SEDBA Members receive $10 discount. Eligibility for discounted rates from Court Reporters at Atkinson Baker ed copy of the Southeast District Bar Association Monthly Bulletin (SEBAMB) Networking Opportunities with local legal community including other attorneys, vendors and Judges. LA/ SEBAMB Page 7

8 2015 Bar Sustaining Firm Memberships Jacobs & Vega, PLC Robert F. Jacobs, Esq. Jay Chung, Esq. Jacobsma & Brau Paul D. Brau, Esq. Jennifer C. Carter, Esq. Kim Bradley Jacobsma, Esq. Lillian Vega-Jacobs, Esq. Nicholas Ramirez, Esq. Laila Havre Jacobsma, Esq. Jerry D. Turner, Esq. Law Office of Lawrence Rohlfing Lawrence D. Rohlfing, Esq. Brian C. Shapiro, Esq. Young Cho, Esq. Monica Perales, Esq. Tredway Lumsdaine & Doyle LLP Joseph Lumsdaine, Esq. Del Hovden, Esq. Jennifer Lumsdaine Esq. Jeehyun Yoon, Esq. Denise Bourgeois Haley, Esq. Steven G. Rosales, Esq. Vijay Patel, Esq. Roy J. Jimenez, Esq. Eugene M. Siegel, Esq. Brian J. Ramsey, Esq. Brandon L. Fieldsted, Esq. Bar Sustaining Membership David Ribeiro, Esq. Thank you for your continued support and participation DON T FORGET TO RENEW YOUR BAR MEMBERSHIP LA/ SEBAMB Page 8

9 SEDBA'S Exclusive Court Reporter Firm LA/ SEBAMB Page 9

10 Know any self-represented litigants tired of navigating the legal system on their own? Have Them Contact The SOUTHEAST DISTRICT BAR LAWYER REFERRAL SERVICE Just $40 gets them a 30 minute consultation with an attorney who is: LOCAL. Attorneys who know and who are known by your Judge. LICENSED. Our members must be in good standing with the State Bar. EDUCATED. All attorneys on the LRS are required to attend continuing education courses to stay current on the law. EXPERIENCED. All attorneys on the LRS are pre-qualified to assure they are practiced in the area of law you need. Tell them to visit the LRS at: Norwalk Blvd., Suite 107 Norwalk CA (562) The Southeast District Bar Association is a non-profit association of legal professionals serving Southeast Los Angeles County including Bellflower, Cerritos, Downey, Norwalk, Paramount, Santa Fe Springs, South Gate, Whittier, and surrounding cities. LA/ SEBAMB Page 10

11 AND LAWYER REFERRAL SERVICE Norwalk Blvd., Suite 107 Norwalk, CA (562) Fax (562) The mission of the Southeast District Bar Association is to enhance and serve the educational and professional needs of its membership, to promote the integrity of the profession, to encourage collegiality and interaction with the judiciary, and to provide access to legal services and the judicial system. We re on the web! The SEBAMB is a joint publication of the Southeast District Bar Association and the Lawyer Referral Service. The SEBAMB welcomes and encourages articles and letters from readers. Please send them to Norwalk Blvd., Suite 107, Norwalk, CA SEDBA and LRS reserves the right to edit articles and letters sent in for publication. All editorial material, including editorial comment, appearing herein represents the views of the respective authors and does not necessarily carry the endorsement of SEDBA, LRS or the Board of Trustees. Likewise, the publication of any advertisement is not to be construed as an endorsement of the product or service unless it is specifically stated in the ad that there is such approval or endorsement Southeast District Bar Association Board of Trustees 2015 Officers Trevor Michels, President Jennifer Carter, President-Elect Jay Chung, Vice President Maria Puente-Porras, Secretary-Treasurer Diana Fukushima, Past President 2015 Trustees Thomas Barclay John Bunnett Charles E. Frisco Paul Jay Fukushima Jennifer Lumsdaine Timothy Nilan Monica Perales Javier Ramirez Dennis Saab LA/ SEBAMB Page 11