Needs Based Award to Wife Justified.
In Marriage of Shannahan, Case No. D057453 (4th Dist., Div. 1 July 18, 2011) (unpublished), husband was ordered to pay $25,000 in attorney’s fees based on need to ex-wife’s counsel. Husband, after all, was an attorney, and appealed a previous fee award to wife without posting a bond--leaving wife without resources. Husband appealed the order, but was unsuccessful. The reason? You know you guessed it (or came close). Trial tactics employed by the parties may be addressed in a fee motion, In re Marriage of Drake, 53 Cal.App.4th 1139, 1167 (1997), and the tactics leaving wife without resources was properly weighted in the equation by the lower court when it came to fashioning the fee award. Beyond that, there was evidence of the parties’ financial disparity so as justify a needs award under Family Code section 2032.
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