The Birthday Cake. Harry Whittier Frees, photographer. 1914. Library of Congress.
We — Mike Hensley and Marc Alexander — began publishing California Attorney's Fees on May 9, 2009. As we said in our Mission Statement:
Our mission is simple: provide a resource tool to practitioners, jurists, and the public about the law governing attorneys’ fees/costs awards, but focused on the law and pragmatic experiences in California state or California federal judicial forums. Aside from examining applicable statutory and decisional law in the area, we will also explore ethical considerations that apply in requesting an award of fees and costs.
We were inspired by an insight in an opinion: "All too often attorney fees become the tail that wags the dog in litigation." Deane Gardenhome Assn. v. Dentkas, 13 Cal.App.4th 1394, 1399 (1993). Many of the more than four thousand posts in our blawg support the wisdom of that insight.
We have received countless phone calls, emails, and comments about the posts, and we greatly appreciate our lively, interested, and involved readers. To date, our blog has received over 1.8 million pageviews.