Simply Legal

Size Doesn’t Matter (Much)

Columnist: Brandon R. Blevans
Sep, 2008 Issue

Area 51. The Loch Ness Monster. Atlantis. Bigfoot. All myths, fairy tales and urban lore. Stories that, for most of us, amount to no more than chuckles and eye rolling. A belief in any of these, however, is unlikely to result in you getting sued.

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The Dog Days of Summer

Columnist: Brandon R. Blevans
Aug, 2008 Issue

I have a cat. I hate to admit it, but I think it’s true. I say “think,” because I don’t really own the cat. She came with the house. The prior occupants asked me to watch her and, three years later, I’m still watching her—accumulate vet bills, food bills and meow endlessly for attention. I claim she’s not mine, but after three years, no one believes me anymore.

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Employment Law and Disorder

Columnist: Brandon R. Blevans
Jul, 2008 Issue

Something weird has been going on lately. In recent months, the California Supreme Court issued a series of pro-employer, common sense rulings, which, among other things: allowed employers to terminate employees for smoking weed; required disability plaintiffs to prove they can actually perform their job; and permitted employee reimbursements in ways that made sense. With things so off kilter, I’ve had almost nothing to protest in my writings.¹ So it was with great interest that we in the legal community (and I, in particular) watched the case of Lonicki v. Sutter Health Central.

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Shut Up and Drive

Columnist: Brandon R. Blevans
NBB Best Of, May, 2008

    I remember vividly the first time I walked into a hotel room to find a phone in the bathroom—that’s right, a phone—installed in ridiculous proximity to the toilet. My initial reaction was that there are some places mankind just shouldn’t be connected to technology.¹ But it was that same hotel visit when I decided connectivity, even in the bathroom, was not such a bad thing; for when the phone rang when I was in the shower, I would have been unable to answer that ever-important call from a client whom I was in town to meet.² Now this was clearly before the days of cellular telephones and connectivity ad nauseum.

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