Substantial Fee Recovery in Sexual Harassment Case Sustained.
In a gnarly sexual harassment case involving a former paralegal, a jury awarded plaintiff $68,000 in compensatory damages against a law firm, the husband of the law firm’s principal owner, and the principal’s son, as well as punitive damages of $75,000 against firm and husband as well as punitive damages of $150,000 against son. The trial court later awarded plaintiff attorney’s fees of $211,111.63.
Defendants appealed in Vargas v. Martinez-Senftner Law Firm, Case No. C055633 (3d Dist. Dec. 10, 2010) (unpublished), but to no avail.
Their excessive fee/duplicative attorney work argument was forfeited because the appealing parties failed to support their arguments with citations to the record or to legal authority. That was the end of the matter on the fee challenge. (Lewis v. County of Sacramento, 93 Cal.App.4th 107, 113 (2001); In re Marriage of Nichols, 27 Cal.App4th 661, 672-673 n. 3 (1994).
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