Awarding $15,000 In A Lemon Law Case Requesting $81,455.83 In Fees/Costs Was Not Fair And Required A Revisit.
In Rosales v. Nissan North America, Inc., Case No. G063792 (4th Dist., Div. 3 Jan. 22, 2026) (unpublished), a settlement was reached in a lemon law case where attorney’s fees became the important issue at the back end of the litigation—not a surprise in many of these situations. Plaintiff’s attorneys, on behalf of prevailing car buyer in a Song-Beverly Act case, moved for $75,906 in attorney’s fees and $5,549.83 in costs (a total of $81,455.83). The lower court found the request excessive, awarding a flat sum of $15,000 to plaintiff. Plaintiff’s appeal successfully resulted in a reversal and remand. Aside from the fact that it was unclear what amount of routine costs was factored into the equation, the 87.6% reduction in the fee request alone was not fully explained despite plaintiff’s detailed substantiation on hourly rates and work effort. In coming to this result, the appellate court relied on its prior decision, Tidrick v. FCA US LLC, 112 Cal.App.5th 1147, 1157-1159 (2025), where an 88% reduction of fees/costs was deemed excessive. Such a reduction required a specification of what costs were being discounted, the lodestar hourly rate for fees, and the number of hours which were reasonably expended on the fee request.