Amount of Fees Awarded Was Sustained, Especially Given One-Third “Haircut.”
Defendants in Hanna v. Gabriel, Case No. B238484 (2d Dist., Div. 1 Dec. 27, 2012) (unpublished) prevailed in a dispute with a contract having a prevailing party fees clause. They sought about $75,000 in fees, supported by a declaration from one attorney describing the work performed--number of hours and billing rates for all the attorneys, but attaching no detailed billings records. The trial court granted $49,045 in fees after making deductions for certain appearances, discovery efforts, excessive time, and inadequately substantiated work.
Plaintiffs appealed, but only challenged the amount of fees awarded.
Didn’t go very far. Although arguing that the defense provided too little detail, this argument melted away when plaintiffs acknowledged that attorney testimony alone can suffice on work effort without the need to provide detailed billings records--the law in California, but likely not the same on the federal level. (Martino v. Denevi, 182 Cal.App.3d 553, 559 (1986).) Besides that, the one-third reduction in awarded fees from the requested amounts demonstrated that the ultimate award was no abuse of discretion.
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