However, Reduced Fee Award Was Issued, And It Was Affirmed On Appeal.
Some of our posts do intersect, so this one is somewhat of an adjunct to our post relating to our discussion of the Advanced Orthopedic unpublished opinion, an October 26, 2026 decision.
In Seales-Perkins v. Los Rios Community College Dist., Case No. C104599 (3d Dist. Oct. 27, 2026) (unpublished), the lower court partially granted defendants’ SLAPP motion to strike portions of plaintiff’s first amended complaint. Then, it granted the defense motion for attorney’s fees, although it reduced the defense requested hours from 82.6 to 70 hours given the motion was not entirely successful. (The amount of the fees is not mentioned.)
Plaintiff’s appeal of the fee award did not change the result. Although limited success is a SLAPP fee factor to consider, the focus is on achieving a primary litigation victory such that overlapping work on successful/unsuccessful work is compensable and does not have to be apportioned in the lower court’s discretion. The lower court determined that allocating particular fee work was not reasonably possible given how plaintiff’s allegations were intertwined—an appropriate analysis. With that said, the trial judge’s reduction of hours for “largely” (but limited) success was appropriate and demonstrated no abuse of discretion when it came to the fee award.