Liability

The advertisement appeared on Craigslist in early December. "Need a real aggressive man with no concern for women," read the posting on the Internet classified advertising forum. Its purported author was a Casper, Wyo., woman, whose photo also was posted. One week later, a man accepted the offer, forcing his way into the woman's home, tying her up and raping her at knifepoint. "I'll show you aggressive," he allegedly said, according to court testimony. In fact, authorities say, the woman had nothing to do with the ad. Instead, they say, a former boyfriend had posted it, soliciting her assault.

The Los Angeles Police Protective League filed suit Wednesday against the city and its Police Department over a controversial policy that will limit cases in which police officers impound vehicles of drivers operating without a license. The new procedures put Los Angeles police officers in conflict with state laws governing 30-day impounds and could expose them to civil liability, according to the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court. The union, which represents more than 9,900 sworn LAPD employees, is asking a judge to determine the validity of the policy and impose an injunction to stop it from being implemented.

Nearly every day, immigrants newly arrived from Mexico pick up job applications at Car Wash on Sunset. Owner George Garcia insists that they provide proof, such as Social Security or green cards, that they are authorized to work. What he does not do is pick up the phone to see if the documents are phony. "I run a business," he said. "Why is it my job to kick people out? It is not my responsibility to figure out who is legal and who is not legal. It's their job to stop them at the border."

The former Marina del Rey headquarters of automotive legend Carroll Shelby was sold along with two office buildings for $6.5 million. Shelby, once a race car driver, set up shop for his fledgling car company Shelby-American at 1042 Princeton Drive in March 1962, his website said. That year he introduced his first Cobra sports car, and in 1963 a Cobra won the United States Road Racing Championship. The company operated out of a red brick industrial and office complex built in the late 1950s that, according to books on Shelby, had previously been leased by playboy race car driver and entrepreneur Lance Reventlow.

In an ominous new twist to the Pentium chip controversy, computer users in corporations around the world are rushing to establish whether a flaw in the Intel microprocessor may have resulted in miscalculations that could make them vulnerable to lawsuits or trouble from government agencies.

General Motors Corp. has agreed to take on responsibility for future product liability claims, removing what could have been a sizable roadblock on the automaker's path to a quick sale of its assets and emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy as a new company. As part of its government-backed restructuring plan, GM wants to sell the bulk of its assets to a new company and leave behind unprofitable assets and other liabilities such as product-related lawsuits.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said Friday it no longer would settle civil suits without an admission of liability in cases in which the defendant has been convicted of criminal violations or admitted to them. The policy change comes after a federal judge in November rejected a $285 million settlement between the SEC and Citigroup Inc. in which liability was neither admitted nor denied. The judge  harshly criticized the agency for imposing a "relatively modest" punishment on large banks for wrongdoing leading up to the financial crisis.

Chrysler Group, the U.S. automaker run by Fiat, said it would accept product liability claims on Chrysler vehicles made before the company exited bankruptcy June 10 and those involved in accidents on or after that date. Chrysler Group announced its changed policy on liability claims in a letter sent to members of Congress, the company said. Chrysler Group purchased most of the assets of the old Chrysler company, now called Old Carco, when it emerged from bankruptcy. Initially, as part of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court's approval of the purchase, Chrysler Group agreed to assume liability only for cars sold by the new company.

Banks that play hardball with borrowers are finding themselves the target of suits alleging breach of good faith, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, intentional infliction of emotional distress and even slander. Not long ago, the main thing banks had to worry about was whether their borrowers could pay their loans back on time.

Question: I recently inherited an old home that is in general disrepair. I want to sell it but am concerned about disclosure liability. I'd like to do an as-is sale and simply disclose all the defects I am aware of. If a buyer signs an as-is contract, can I still be sued or held liable for defects that I fail to disclose? If so, how can I protect myself? Answer: Disclosure liability can always be reduced, but it can never be eliminated completely. This is because people can file lawsuits for any or no reason at all. The best you can do is to eliminate as many reasons as possible.

As the scandal over two Miramonte Elementary School teachers accused of committing lewd acts on children grows, it's becoming clear the Los Angeles Unified School District faces a heavy financial cost. Miramonte will reopen Thursday with an all-new slate of teachers and administrators as well as custodians and cafeteria workers. But L.A. Unified will continue to pay the old staff even as they wait out the investigations at a high school under construction a few miles away. It remains unclear how long this arrangement will last; the investigations are expected to take months to complete.

The Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday asked a federal bankruptcy judge to reject all claims for damages filed by San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow over his severe beating in a Dodger Stadium parking lot on Opening Day of the 2011 season. Attorneys for the team and its owner, Frank McCourt, argued that none of the entities in the baseball club's corporate structure have any liability for the March 31 assault that left Stow in a coma for months. Stow sued the Dodgers in May, alleging negligence and poor security arrangements at the ballpark.

  The Securities and Exchange Commission said it no longer would settle civil suits without an admission of liability in cases in which the defendant already had been convicted of criminal violations or admitted to them. The policy change came after a federal judge in November rejected a $285-million settlement between the SEC and Citigroup Inc. in which liability was neither admitted nor denied. The judge harshly criticized the SEC for imposing a "relatively modest" punishment on large banks for wrongdoing leading up to the financial crisis.

Dear Liz: Do you have any resources available for young widows with children? My husband died 10 months ago and I am struggling to make sense of my financial situation, which is complicated because of debt. I would be so grateful for help. Answer: Widows and widowers are often advised not to make any big decisions in the first year of their bereavement. Unfortunately, bill collectors aren't willing to wait that long. You need to determine your liability for your late husband's debts.

Buy team, make money. That's the tried-and-true formula in major professional sports, where even an owner who loses money running his team can cash in when he sells. Frank McCourt should be Exhibit A for this theory. McCourt bought the Dodgers for $421 million seven years ago, and the team arguably has doubled in value since then. Yet McCourt's decision to take the Dodgers into bankruptcy means he could be forced to walk away from the team with absolutely nothing. "What makes the Dodgers situation so striking is that this shouldn't be happening in a major market.

A handful of residents living along a busy stretch of Glendale Avenue say city officials are forcing them to take down mirrors they've attached to trees in the public right-of-way so they can better see oncoming traffic while exiting their driveways. The residents, who live north of the Ventura Freeway, say that in the absence of any speed-reduction enhancements — such as humps — the convex mirrors are one of the few safety measures they have. City officials, though, say the mirrors aren't allowed on city-owned trees.

A dispute over who should be held liable when an on-duty Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy commits serious misconduct is hampering contract negotiations between county officials and the leaders of the 40 cities that pay the sheriff to patrol their streets. The disagreement stems from the case of former Deputy Gabriel Gonzalez, convicted in 2006 of raping three women while on duty in Compton and surrounding areas.

Reporting from Sacramento -- Earlier this year, with the scandal-plagued city of Vernon dominating headlines, Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez took the unusual step of working the floor in the Legislature's other house, buttonholing fellow Democrats to endorse his bill to dissolve the industrial enclave in his Los-Angeles based district. He placed the bill before senators one by one, handed them a pen and watched them sign. It was a signal to lawmakers that the measure was a priority for the man in what is commonly referred to as the second most powerful post in California government.