Cases of Note

An artificial intelligence safety bill named  SB 1047  was overwhelmingly approved by California Congress on Wednesday and now heads to the Senate for final consideration. If enacted, the "fiercely debated" bill would require tech companies to safety-test AI programs prior to release, and empower the attorney general to sue AI companies for any major harm caused by their technologies. The bill earned cautious support from the likes of Elon Musk and Anthropic, while its opponents include OpenAI and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. This bill seeks to establish guardrails for the development of the most powerful AI models to avoid the more catastrophic possibilities about which experts have raised alarms. It places a series of obligations on developers of “covered models” and providers of the cloud compute for training such models. This bill also seeks to establish a framework for developing a public cloud-computing cluster that facilitates equitable participation in th

Case Summary In a civil suit filed on December 21st in Los Angeles Superior Court stemming from a 2010 incident in which Vin Diesel’s former assistant, Asta Jonasson alleges that Diesel forcibly groped, restrained and kissed her in a hotel suite in Atlanta and masturbated in front of her. The complaint states Diesel ignored Jonasson’s “clear statements of non-consent,” and after she “screamed and ran towards the nearby bathroom,” he “pinned her against the wall with his body." Jonasson claims that Samantha Vincent, the president of Diesel’s company One Race at the time, called her “mere hours” after the alleged assault and “terminated Ms. Jonasson’s employment.” “No one is too famous or powerful to evade justice,” Claire-Lise Kutlay of Greenberg Gross LLP, attorney for Jonasson, wrote in a statement. “We hope her courageous decision to come forward helps create lasting change and empowers other survivors.” “Vin Diesel categorically denies this claim in its entirety,” Bryan Freedma

  Update On April 19th, the complaint and petition was dismissed without leave to amend. The judge decided, that the county was not in violation of the Sherman Act stating "in creating the state-action immunity doctrine, the Supreme Court made clear the Sherman Act was not intended to reach the activities of state governments," citing Llewellyn v. Crothers, 765 F.2d 769, 774 (9th Cir. 1985). The judge in regards to dismissal without leave to amend wrote, "A claim is futile, and the court may dismiss without leave to amend,“if it determines that ‘allegation of other facts consistent with the challenged pleading could not possibly cure the deficiency,’ or if the [party] had several opportunities to amend its [pleading] and repeatedly failed to cure deficiencies.” Telesaurus VPC, LLC v. Power , 623 F.3d 998, 1003 (9th Cir. 2010). Case Summary American Medical Response is suing the board in federal court. This is three months after the San Bernardino County Board of Supervi

Actress Paula Patton at the 2022 BET Awards at Microsoft Theater L.A. Live on June 26, 2022 — Photo by Image Press Agency Case Summary Plaintiff Gina Conte stated that she visited Paula Patton’s home in Calabasas on August 2, 2020. She said while at the home Patton’s German shepherd mix dog named “Bear” attacked and bit her. In court documents filed on July 27, 2022, Conte accused Patton of negligence in the dog bite incident. Conte's suit prays actual damages, special damages (costs associated with medical expenses, lost wages etc.), punitive damages, legal fees with interest and other relief deemed by the court. Court documents state that Conte “was hurt and injured in her health, strength, and activity, sustaining serious and significant injury to her body and shock to her nervous system and person, all of which injuries have caused, and will continue to cause mental, physical, and nervous pain and suffering.” Patton's answer filed on September 15, 2022 claims many, many leg

Case Summary Actor Jonathan Majors' ex-girlfriend Grace Jabbari is suing him in federal court Tuesday. Three months after a New York City jury convicted him of assaulting and harassing her. Jabbari, a British dancer who is alleging defamation, malicious prosecution, assault and battery in the Southern District of New York. The suit claims that Majors physically abused her several other times during their nearly two-year relationship, the first time in July 2022. And she alleges in the lawsuit that since Majors was convicted in December, he has continued to attack her reputation. “When publicly confronted with Grace’s numerous allegations of abuse, Majors has called her a liar at every turn and very specifically claimed that he has never put his hands on a woman, with the goal of convincing the world that Grace is not a victim of domestic abuse but instead a crazy liar who should be treated as such,” the lawsuit says. In the court papers, Jabbari also alleges that Majors “has consis

Hyundai Motors and Kia Motors America will compensate owners' theft-related vehicle losses. Case Summary Kia and Hyundai thefts skyrocketed because a viral TikTok video in the summer of 2022 showed people how to steal the cars with just a USB cable and screwdriver. And while the manufacturers made a software update available to owners, there was not a mandatory recall of any make and model related to this issue. Also, the update was only effective when the vehicle alarm is armed. The law firm Hagens Berman brought a national class-action lawsuit on behalf of the owners of affected vehicles in August 2022, and reached a proposed settlement in May of 2023 that covered roughly 8 million vehicles and is valued at more than $200 million.  Since May 2023, the companies worked with law enforcement agencies to provide more than 26,000 steering wheel locks to 77 law enforcement agencies in 12 states. The class action was enjoined by Governmental Entities and Insurers and sought relief for t

  Cassie Ventura, Sean 'Diddy' Combs attends Los Angeles Premiere of CANT STOP WONT STOP: A BAD BOY STORY on June 21, 2017, Beverly Hills, CA. — Photo by info@photographybyeugene.com Case Summary R&B singer, Cassie Ventura, better known by the stage name Cassie, had filed her blockbuster lawsuit in federal court against the hip-hop mogul Sean Combs only a day before Combs, a rapper and producer, paid her to drop the suit. In her complaint, Ventura described a pattern of coercive control, abuse, drugging and sexual violence perpetrated against her by Combs throughout their more than 11-year relationship, which began in 2007, when Cassie was 21 and had signed to the 37-year-old Combs’ Bad Boy Records, and ended in 2019. The suit alleged Combs brought the singer into his "ostentatious, fast-paced, and drug-fueled lifestyle" soon after she met him and signed to his label in 2005, when she was 19 and he was 37. Ventura said Combs, now 54, began a pattern of abuse as so