As interest rates rise, borrowers may find themselves in default, facing lenders who overreach by seeking to recover default interest in addition to regular interest on the principal of the loan. Borrowers may have a weapon in their arsenal to oppose unscrupulous lenders.

In Honchariw v. FJM Private Mortgage Fund, LLC, 83 Cal.App. 5th 893 (2022), a borrower alleged that a default interest rate of 9.99% per annum on the then outstanding principal was illegal. The trial court affirmed an arbitration decision rejecting the borrower’s position. The Court of Appeal ...

In the 2020 general election, Californians passed Proposition 22, which gave ride-sharing and delivery app companies such as Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash the ability to continue classify their drivers as independent contractors.  Shortly after the proposition passed, a group of drivers challenged its constitutionality.  At its core, the issue is whether drivers in the gig economy should be entitled to the benefits typically afforded to employees.  As independent contractors, these workers forgo such benefits in exchange for the right to set their own work schedule and receive ...

Q: I was appointed a receiver to collect a judgment. I have not yet filed my final account and report, the court has not approved my final fees. Other creditors of the judgment debtor are demanding that I pay them, because they were not able to be paid from the judgment debtor’s assets taken into receivership. The judgment debtor has paid the judgment creditor and is now demanding that the receivership be terminated. Must the court now terminate the receivership?

A: Not necessarily. The general rule is a receivership should be terminated as soon as the purpose of the receivership has been ...