Also, Civil Deposition Changes Are Significant
As we ring in the new 2013 year, there are three changes in the attorney’s fees and routine costs area, although fairly narrow in nature. Also, we also include an off-topic change relating to civil depositions that should be of interest to all California civil litigators. All laws are effective January 1, 2013.
Personnel File Requests.
AB 2674/Labor Code sections 226 and 1498.5 require that employers must provide current and former employees with personnel records within 30 days of a request. Failure to comply subjects an employer to a $750 penalty per violation as well as attorney’s fees incurred in obtaining compliance.
Family Law Proceedings Involving Certain Violent Sexual Felony Spouses.
AB 1522/Family Code section 4324.5 prohibits family law judges from awarding alimony and attorney’s fees to spouses convicted of certain violent sexual felonies under Penal Code section 667.5 against the other spouse (the injured spouse) within 5 years of the conviction, unless the fees are awarded out of community property assets. The new law would prohibit fees from being awarded out of the injured spouse’s separate property assets.
Routine Costs Include Pro Bono Litigant-Represented Court Interpreter Fees.
AB 2684/Code of Civil Procedure section 1033.5(a)(12) now codifies that mandatory routine costs are available for court-authorized interpreter fees for an indigent person represented by certain qualified pro bono attorneys.
Civil Deposition Time Limits.
AB 1875, adding section 2025.290 to the California Code of Civil Procedure, requires that many depositions be limited to 7 hours in total. While the 7-hour limit is the default mechanism under the new rule, several exceptions apply. The most significant one is that a court may authorize additional time if “needed to fairly examine the deponent or if the deponent, another person, or any other circumstance impedes or delays the examination.” The second exception is in play where parties voluntarily stipulate that the default limit does not apply to specific depositions or to the entire proceeding. The 7-hour limit also does not apply to complex litigation, expert witnesses, employment cases, PMK deponents, or parties added after the deposition has concluded. Despite the exemption for depositions in complex litigation, a 14-hour limit will be applied to complex litigation depositions where a witness has a fatal medical condition, evidenced by a medical affidavit/declaration attesting there is a substantial doubt the witness will survive for another 6 months. Commentary on this new provision has argued that the new law shifts the burden from counsel for the deponent, who formerly had to seek a protective order from the court to avoid an excessively long deposition, to the counsel of the party taking the deposition, who will soon have to secure the agreement of the other parties or obtain an order from the court to obtain more than 7 hours of deposition time under specific circumstances.
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