Santa Clara Law Professional Responsibility students in Professor Flagsberg’s fall class recently scored a victory in the California Supreme Court. In December, the Court granted requests made by the students & Professor Flagsberg to depublish the case of People v. Hayes (2018) 27 Cal.App.5th 340. Because the case is no longer published, it can not be cited as precedent.
The case dealt with issues involving candor to the tribunal, which the class was studying at the time. The students & Professor Flagsberg thought the opinion misstated the law and showed insufficient respect for a lawyer’s duties of confidentiality and loyalty to their client.
The California rules of court permit any interested party to request depublication. Because we believed the case was wrongly decided, we filed in the Supreme Court letters requesting that the Court depublish the case.
On December 19th, 2018, the California Supreme Court ruled in our favor:
The requests for an order directing depublication of the opinion in the above-entitled appeal are granted. The Reporter of Decisions is directed not to publish in the Official Appellate Reports the opinion in the above-entitled appeal filed September 19, 2018, which appears at 27 Cal.App.5th 340. (Cal. Const., art. VI, section 14; Cal. Rules of Court, rule 8.1125.) The court declines to review this matter on its own motion. The matter is now final.
