Lodestar/Reasonableness Of Fees: Lower Court’s Award Of Civil Code Section 1717 Fees To Winning Defendant Was No Abuse Of Discretion

 

Unpublished Decision Has Nice Review of Lodestar Setting and Appellate Review Principles.

     DEI, LLC v. Capital Partners Services Corp., Case No. D062553 (4^th Dist., Div. 1 Feb. 13, 2014) (unpublished) is not remarkable for the appellate court’s affirmance of a $134,092.00 attorney’s fees award (out of a requested $153,527.50) to the winning defendant under Civil Code section 1717, but is remarkable for its nice summary of these lodestar and review of fee order principles:

     1. Calculation of the lodestar is the method used to gauge fully compensatory, reasonable fees to be awarded to a prevailing party;

     2. A party challenging fee submissions must contest specific items rather than make just general arguments that claimed fees are excessive, duplicative, or unrelated to compensable work;

     3. A fee award on a lodestar calculation is reviewed under a highly deferential abuse of discretion standard;

     4. The trial court is not required to explain the lodestar calculation;

     5. A percentage reduction for excessive billings is permitted;

     6. Padding is not subject to compensation;

     7. Block billing is not objectionable per se unless there is a need to separate out work that qualifies for compensation from work that does not;

     8. Vague entries are subject to lower court reduction; and

     9. An opposing party litigating tenaciously cannot later be heard to complain about the time the prevailing party spent in response.