Gov.Jerry Brown has resurrected an expired law, Cal. Code of Civil Procedure section 128.5. This is a positive development for ethical lawyers and their clients, who find themselves dealing with bad-faith litigation tactics coming from another other party or attorney, but without a meaningful way to combat it.

When the document later appeared in the court’s publicly available file, Hygieia’s attorney notified her clients of the accessibility of the information; in an attempt to defeat PHL’s claim that the information contained trade secrets, Hygieia had third parties view and copy the declaration and the attachments. In response, PHL filed a motion for sanctions pursuant to Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 128.5 on the ground that Hygieia and its attorney’s actions were frivolous and taken in bad faith, which the trial court granted and the Court of Appeal affirmed.