RSS feeds on The Complex Litigator

If you subscribe to the RSS feed provided by Feedburner (now Google Feedburner, actually), something seems to have gone wrong with it in the last week.  I suggest changing over to the RSS feed provided by SquareSpace:  http://www.thecomplexlitigator.com/post-data/rss.xml

I may need to abandon the FeedBurner feed if it doesn't correct itself soon, but I didn't want to cut off subscribers without warning about the possibility of this change.

Refusing to produce documents? Not priceless.

The correct answer, at least for yesterday, is $25,000. I normally don't write, even obliquely, about cases that I am actively litigating, but I felt like I should bend the rule this one time. A trial court granted $25,000 in monetary sanctions for a defendant's failure to comply with a discovery order. I'm trying to be a "glass is a little over half full" kind of guy. I asked for $45,000.

Minor blog formatting adjustments and new tools...

SquareSpace rolled out some new features, one of which you will find in the right sidebar.  SquareSpace now stores Twitter posts on its own servers to speed load times.  The widget is also interactive, allowing you to navigate back through older Twitter posts.

While I was at it, I slightly expanded the width of the content area and then increased the font size for posts to improve readability.  If these sorts of things matter to you, feel free to leave a comment.

Daily Journal article on right to discover witness identities in class actions

The April 21, 2010 edition of the Daily Journal includes my article, entitled "Witnesses Cannot Hide," in the Perspective column. It explains that the right to discover putative class member identity in class actions is really the right to discover witness identity in general. Discovery of witnesses is a foundational element of civil discovery rights. The arguments about privacy notices are intended to distract from this core right. The article is posted below with permission of Daily Journal Corp. (2010).

If you have difficulty viewing the flash object, the direct link is here.  I thank the editorial staff of the Daily Journal for providing the posting permission.

Happy belated second birthday to The Complex Litigator

Last week The Complex Litigator turned two years old.  Since this blog's first birthday, it has moved to SquareSpace for hosting, received quite a bit of cosmetic attention, and continued to grow its readership.  I appreciate that last part most of all.

Random facts:

I was surprised to see that the post about Coito is currently the single most popular post on this site since the move to SquareSpace.  It even beats out Brinker posts.  (I don't have post-by-post statistics prior to the move to SquareSpace, so I can't say for sure the Coito is the most popular post of all time.)

The number of RSS subscribers now exceeds the total average number of visitors per day when this blog was one year old.

CLE: The Thirtieth Annual Labor and Employment Law Symposium

On March 31, 2010, the Labor & Employment Law Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association will present the Thirtieth Annual Labor and Employment Law Symposium:

The 2010 Labor and Employment Law Symposium provides practical advice and cutting-edge panel discussions on labor and employment law issues of critical importance to attorneys, judges, neutrals, government practitioners, union representatives, in-house counsel, and human resource professionals. The Symposium provides a unique intellectual experience allowing the panelists, all of whom are recognized experts in their fields, to share new perspectives, ideas and information. Each panel discussion covers opposing viewpoints, interpretations and strategies, and will encourage audience questions and participation.

The location details:

Biltmore Hotel
506 South Grand Ave. 
Los Angeles, California

I will be speaking on the panel entitled "20 Tips for Successful Navigation of e-Discovery Requirements," with Moderator Angela Robledo, Hon. Carl J. West, and Heather Morgan.

Daily Journal article on unconstitutionality of underfunding California courts

Today's Daily Journal includes a Perspective column, entitled "Legislature Using Purse Strings to Bind Judiciary," authored by colleague Linh Hua and me.  The column discusses in greater detail the unconstitutionality of underfunding the judicial branch.  The article is posted below with permission of Daily Journal Corp. (2010).

If you have difficulty viewing the flash object, the direct link is here.  I thank the editorial staff of the Daily Journal for quickly providing the posting permission.

The beauty of SquareSpace...

is that it allows for quite a bit of tinkering with site layout on the fly.  See, SquareSpace for some examples of how far you can go with their hosting platform.  This is both good and bad.  The good part is self-evident.  The bad part is that you can lose hours and hours of time creating graphics and adjusting layouts without realizing it.  So don't mind my tinkering with the layout; once I got started, I had to keep going until I was marginally satisfied with it.  I was bored, and I may tinker more.  So don't be surprised if the blog looks a little different every day.

Speaking of adjustments, the page-width header and "floating" banner required very precise pixel registration of some graphics.  Interestingly, chrome rendered part of the header 1 pixel off from how both Internet Explorer and Firefox render the same images.  I suspect that there is difference in how the browsers handle a rounding issue.  Regardless, everything now aligns in Chrome, Firefox 3.6, and Internet Explorer 8.  I can't help the rest of you.