Lower Court Did Not Abuse Its Discretion On The Fee Award—It Cut The Requested Fees By $525,342.75.
In Carranza v. City of Los Angeles, Case No. B327196 (2d Dist., Div. 7 May 23, 2025) (partially published; fee discussion not published), a plaintiff sued City of Los Angeles under FEHA for a hostile work environment based on sexual harassment. She won, obtaining a $4 million judgment affirmed in the published part of the opinion. Plaintiff then asked for $1,135,392.75 in FEHA fees ($756,928.50 lodestar plus a 1.5 positive multiplier). After cutting some hourly rates and fees, the lower court awarded $610,050 in fees, inclusive of a 1.2 positive multiplier for some work by the two lead attorneys.
The unpublished portion of this opinion affirmed the fee award. The trial judge has leeway to determine reasonableness of hourly rates and work efforts based on his or her own experience, although fee expert testimony obviously can be facilitative. The main problem on the fee number, because it was reviewed for abuse of discretion, was two-fold: (1) the lower court reduced the fee “ask” by $525,342.75; and (2) the 1.2 positive multiplier did take into account the skill of plaintiff’s attorneys such that a further enhancement was not compelled based on other factors such as contingency risk.