. . . . Meaning Plaintiff Should Recover Fees Below And On Appeal.
Although plaintiff won both at the trial and appellate levels as far as defeating the defense SLAPP motion, plaintiff did well to cross-appeal from the denial of attorney’s fees in LA Taxi v. Independent Taxi Owners, Case No. B255909 (2d Dist., Div. 4 Aug. 20, 2015) (published). The appellate court determined that the challenged false advertisements fell within the pure commercial speech exception to the SLAPP statutory scheme, meaning that no reasonable attorney should have brought the motion. That also meant that the fee denial was legally erroneous such that the matter was remanded to allow plaintiff to recoup trial and appellate fees for winning at the SLAPP juncture of the case.