Appellants Failed To Follow Trial Court Options, Or Ask For Sealing Of Financial Records Under Applicable California Rules Of Court.
After a prior appeal in which the reviewing court remanded a sanctions/fee award to consider what causes of action it related to and also consider the financial circumstances of appellants as far as the lodestar amount, the appellants in Garau v. Torrance Unified School District, Case No. B268172 (2d Dist., Div. 7 Nov. 13, 2017) (unpublished) seemingly failed to follow the trial court’s directives as far as presenting financial information and never followed the motion procedure to seal financial records under California Rules of Court, rules 2.550 and 2.551. Instead, it relied on stale and cursory fee waiver information. That led to the trial judge’s lodestar fee award of $644,037 against appellants. Unfortunately for them, that was affirmed on appeal under the deferential abuse of discretion standards given that they failed to properly submit financial information as a mitigating lodestar consideration.
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