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« Allocation: Trial Courts 42% Apportionment Of Fee Recovery Was Legally Erroneous Where No Clear Division Between Covered Unpaid Wage Versus Noncovered Tort Claims Apparent In Lower Court Ruling | Main | Estoppel/Fee Clause Interpretation: Winning Subcontractor In Contractual Litigation Not Entitled To Fee Recovery Where Contract Clause Only Applied To Arbitration »

January 23, 2014

Family Law: Trial Court Erroneously Denied Needs-Based Fees Request Where Litigant Did File Comparable Declaration With Responsive Information Rather Than Judicial Council Form FL-319

 

Substance Over Form Prevailed in this One.

     Marriage of Sharples, Case No. E056941 (4th Dist., Div. 2 Jan. 22, 2014) (published) is a case where a lower court denied a wife’s needs-based request for provisional attorney’s fees and costs (with husband having a definably bigger cash flow/asset advantage) because she did not file Judicial Council Form FL-319, which has information needed to justify an attorney’s fees request.

    This one was reversed on appeal.

     The problem was that, even under former CRC 5.93 (now 5.427), the use of the form was not mandatory. Rather, there was another option: submission of comparable declarations addressing the items listed in the form. That is what ex-wife did, even though not using the mandatory form, such that her resort to the CRC option meant this one had to be reversed.

Posted at 10:27 PM in Cases: Family Law |

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