Whether You Need to or Not, Separately Appeal, Separately Appeal ….
Plaintiff losing a sexual harassment, retaliation and failure of accommodation suit to the County of Los Angeles was then hit with $40,000 (out of a requested $115,615.50) in attorney’s fees under both CCP § 1038(a) [defense costs, including fees, can be awarded if the action was brought without either good faith or reasonable cause against governmental entity] and Government Code § 12965(b) [fees can be awarded to FEHA prevailing defendant if action was unreasonable, frivolous, meritless or groundless]. Plaintiff appealed the underlying judgment but not the separate attorney fee award.
That was a real problem for losing plaintiff in Montejano v. County of Los Angeles, Case No. B250007 (2d Dist., Div. 5 Aug. 12, 2014) (unpublished).
The appellate court had no jurisdiction to even review the challenged fee award because the judgment, even allowing for costs and disbursements from plaintiff with a blank then provided, did not subsume the later fee “fixing” order, which should have been appealed separately. (Silver v. Pacific American Fish Co., Inc., 190 Cal.App.4th 688, 694 (2010).)
Lesson here, appeal any postjudgment fee order separately, just for safety purposes.