Result in Recent Unpublished Decision Shows How Attorney’s Fees May Eclipse the Amount in Controversy. Our Mission Statement reflects that attorney’s fees are frequently the tail that wags the litigation dog, meaning that recovery of fees may be essential to a prevailing party trying to vindicate its interest in a case with an amount […]
Fourth District, Division 3 Finds Sufficient Substantiation in Attorney Declaration Attesting to Actual Number of Hours Worked and Attorney’s Billing Rate. Many practitioners might think that itemized billing statements and evidence on reasonableness of rates/hours expended are essentials in a fee petition proceeding. Although highly advisable, the next case reinforces that such detailed substantiation
Decision Reversing $200,000 Fee Award and Remanding for Reconsideration. In our December 25, 2008 post, we reviewed McCown v. City of Fontana, 550 F.3d 918 (9th Cir. 2008), which reversed and remanded a $200,000 fee award in a civil rights case (42 U.S.C. sec. 1983). The Ninth Circuit recently denied panel rehearing and
Ninth Circuit Reverses District Court’s Sanctions Order. In an American with Disabilities Act (ADA) case, a district judge dismissed a lawsuit based on plaintiff’s lack of standing and imposed monetary sanctions against plaintiff and his counsel for bringing a frivolous case. The Ninth Circuit reversed the standing determination, which also meant that the sanctions
Use of Multiplier Appropriate Even Where Substantial Punitive Damages Also Were Awarded. Bimbo Bakeries, known for selling such brands of Orowheat and Entemann’s, suffered an adverse jury verdict based on plaintiff’s complaint for wrongful termination, gender and pregnancy discrimination, and violation of related California statutes. The jury awarded plaintiff $340,700 in compensatory damages and
Fourth District, Division 2 Affirms Fee Award, Even Though $182,469.75 In Fees Were Requested. Under our category “Requests for Admissions,” we have surveyed cases where courts have granted or refused substantial attorney’s fees award to litigants claiming that they had to prove facts that were unreasonably denied with respect to pretrial discovery requests for
Second District, Division 6 Upholds Fee Denial Under CCP Section 1021.5. Under our category “Private Attorney General Statute,” we have examined the requirements—more stringent than one might assume—for awarding prevailing litigants attorney’s fees under California’s private attorney general statute (Code of Civil Procedure section 1021.5). There are many elements to satisfy, including establishment that
Second District, Division 7 Issues Two Unpublished Opinions on SLAPP. In our category “SLAPP,” we have explored cases where defendants have been victorious in winning mandatory attorney’s fees awards after prevailing in anti-SLAPP motions. The statutory basis for such fee entitlement is Code of Civil Procedure section 425.16(c). Division 7 of the Second District
First District, Division 3 Disagrees With Weil & Brown Treatise Commentary. After plaintiff voluntarily dismissed her action, two defendants timely filed cost memoranda, but did not submit proposed judgments in addition to the memoranda. Plaintiff argued that the failure to submit these extra proposed judgments barred recovery of costs based primarily on a commentary
Fourth District, Division 3 Finds Fees Clause in Contingency Agreement Was Inconsequential. Earlier, in our September 21, 2008 post, we reported on Strong v. Beydoun, 166 Cal.App.4th 1398 (2008), where defendant clients owed no unjust enrichment recovery to an attorney who failed to obtain clients’ signatures to a fee-sharing agreement with clients’ other counsel.
