Author name: Marc Alexander

Allocation, Prevailing Party, Reasonableness Of Fees, Section 1717: $371,135 Fee Award To Prevailing Tenant Affirmed Where Breach Of Contract Jury Verdict Was Only $84,595

Cases: Allocation, Cases: Prevailing Party, Cases: Reasonableness of Fees, Cases: Section 1717

Tenant Also Entitled To Costs And Appellate Fees For Winning On Appeal.             Strength Farm, LLC v. The Heron Family Trust, Case No. B285264 (2d Dist., Div. 8 July 25, 2018) (unpublished) illustrates that contractual fee recoveries do not have to proportionate to the compensatory breach of contract award (may even be more if tort […]

Appealability, Class Action: Class Representative’s Appeal Of Fee Award Against Her Counsel Was Dismissed

Cases: Appealability, Cases: Class Actions

Class Representative Was Not Aggrieved To Have Standing To Appeal.             A class representative in a misclassification wage/hour class action appealed a fee award against one of her attorneys. The appeal was dismissed because the class representative was not aggrieved, with the impacted attorney not appealing so as to preserve the issue for review.   The

Family Law: Court-Appointed Expert Award Against Ex-Husband Reversed Because No Hearing Held To Determine If Request Was Reasonable

Cases: Family Law

Evidence Code Section 730 Makes Reasonableness A Requirement.             In Marriage of Aresh, Case No. G054062 (4th Dist., Div. 3 July 25, 2018) (unpublished), an ex-husband was saddled with a $179,561 award to a court-appointed forensic accountant in a dissolution matter. He appealed and was awarded by doing so. The problem was that Evidence Code

Costs: Costs Request Filed Before Judicial Referee Properly Preserved The Issue, Even Though No Costs Memorandum Filed With Superior Court

Cases: Costs

Parties’ Choice Of Judicial Reference Prevailed.            In Fitness International, LLC v. Monterey Property Associates Anaheim, LLC, Case No. D071910 (4th Dist., Div. 1 July 25, 2018) (unpublished), the appellate court sustained a determination that the parties’ judicial reference stipulation was broad such that it allowed a costs request to be filed before the referee,

Special Fee Shifting Statute: California Public Records Act Requester To Prevent Disclosure Of Public Agency Documents Not Entitled To CPRA Fee Recovery

Cases: Special Fee Shifting Statutes

Maybe, Private Attorney General Fees, Maybe ….             The Third District, in National Conference of Black Mayors v. Chico Community Publishing, Inc., Case No. C083956 (3d Dist. July 25, 2018) (published), held that a requester of public records litigating against an officer of a public agency to prevent disclosure of public documents by a public

In The News . . . . $307,902.30 Fee Award Against EEOC Reversed Because Seventh Circuit Court Of Appeals Decided It Was Not Legally Frivolous In Nature

In The News

Factual Reasonableness Was Conceded By Defense, And Legal Issue Was Novel Such That Fee Recovery Was Unwarranted.             Although we generally post on California cases, readers will notice that we do post on non-California federal cases of interest. Here is one of these cases emanating from the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals (a federal appellate

Intellectual Property: Ninth Circuit Reverses Oregon Magistrate Judge’s Denial Of Attorney’s Fees To Successful Copyright Plaintiff In Peer-To-Peer Networks Involving BitTorrent Users

Cases: Intellectual Property

Magistrate Judge Improperly Analyzed Fogerty Factors, Putting Improper Emphasis On General Dislike of BitTorret Litigation In General And On Conduct Of Plaintiff’s Counsel In Other Cases.        Evolving technology has always presented interesting new developments to intellectual property law given that it did not necessarily see how technology will impact protected uses. One of the

SLAPP: Defense, Although Somewhat Raising Winning Argument Late In The Game, Was Entitled To SLAPP Winner Fees

Cases: SLAPP

However, Trial judge Was Right In Reducing $50,295 Fee Request Down To $33,759.28.             By now, our readers know that SLAPP defendants are entitled to mandatory attorney’s fee awards. However, there is an important “but.” That “but” is that the defense requested fees must be reasonable, with a large amount of discretion imbued to the

In The News . . . . E.D. Pa. District Judge Properly Reduced False Claims Act Relator’s $3.113 Million Fee Request Down To A Fees Award Of About $1.8 Million

In The News

District Judge Did Not Have To Adopt Reasonable Fee Award Position Of The Defense, But Could Reduce The Request Even More.             USA ex rel. Palmer v C&D Technologies, Inc., No. 17-2350 (3d Cir. July 17, 2018) (precedential/published) involved a False Claims Act relator’s request for $3,113,530.50 in attorney’s fees under a prevailing party fee-shifting

Private Attorney General, Special Fee Shifting Statute: Plaintiff Was Not Successful So As To Be Entitled To CCP § 1021.5 Fees Because He Did Not Achieve His Primary Objective And Did Not Prevail Under “Before And After Test” For A Successful Party

Cases: Private Attorney General (CCP 1021.5), Cases: Special Fee Shifting Statutes

Plaintiff Wanted Reinstatement of His Driver’s License, But That Did Not Occur—He Only Got A New DMV Remand Revocation Hearing Based On DUI Charges; He Also Did Not Prevail For A Smaller Fee Award Under Government Code Section 800.             California’s private attorney general statute, Code of Civil Procedure section 1021.5, has a multi-prong test

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