California Legal Brief

The Rule of Guardian Storage Centers, LLC is that attorneys must comply with State Fund obligations when they receive attorney-client privileged materials that were impermissibly taken from the privilege holder without authorization, even when the materials were originally sent to the disclosing person in their corporate capacity, under circumstances where the person later provides the materials to their attorney in their individual capacity against the privilege holder.

The Rule of Fuentes v. Empire Nissan, Inc. is that a contract's format and illegibility generally do not support substantive unconscionability, but courts must closely scrutinize difficult-to-read contracts for unfair or one-sided terms when high procedural unconscionability exists, under circumstances where an employment arbitration agreement is presented in nearly illegible tiny print with minimal time for review.

The Rule of Paknad v. Superior Court is that when an employer defends against an employee's discrimination lawsuit by asserting an avoidable consequences defense based on the scope and adequacy of its internal investigation, the employer waives attorney-client privilege and work product protection as to all factual findings about the employee's allegations and information relevant to the investigation's scope and adequacy, under circumstances where the employer voluntarily put the investigation's thoroughness and independence at issue in its pleadings and discovery responses.