LAAC filed its Amicus Brief in this matter on July 7, 2005.  If you have specific questions about this case, please email Julia Wilson, LAAC Director, at jwilson@pic.org.

Click here for a link to the Supreme Court of California's webpages about this case.

The procedural status of this case is that it is a petition for review after the Court of Appeal reversed a judgment of conviction of criminal offenses on charges of welfare fraud. This case presents the following issue: Does collateral estoppel bar a criminal prosecution for welfare fraud and perjury where an administrative law judge has previously determined that the same welfare overpayments forming the basis of the criminal complaint were made because of administrative errors by the county welfare department? (See People v. Sims (1982) 32 Cal.3d 468.)