Author name: Marc Alexander

Private Attorney General: School Districts/Community College Districts Do Not Satisfy “Financial Burden” Element of CCP § 1021.5

Cases: Private Attorney General (CCP 1021.5)

  Plaintiffs Had Financial Incentive Aplenty In Challenging Contemporaneous Source Document Rule.      Plaintiffs, school districts and community colleges, successfully challenged the “contemporaneous source document rule” (guidelines used to audit employee salary and benefit costs in reimbursement claims) as an invalid regulation under the state Administrative Procedure Act.      Plaintiffs then moved for an award […]

In The News . . . . Recent Surveys Confirm That More Law Firms Today Are Absorbing Online Research Costs As Overhead

In The News

       A couple of recent surveys have confirmed, that in these cost savings days fueled even more by the lingering recession, many more law firms and lawyers are absorbing online research costs as overhead rather than passing them onto clients for payment.      Mattern & Associates’ 2012 Cost Recovery survey reported that clients increasingly

Fee Clause Interpretation: Clause Allowing For Recovery Of “Legal Expenses” Sensibly Encompassed Recovery Of Attorney’s Fees

Cases: Fee Clause Interpretation

  Lower Court Denial Based on Contrary Interpretation Reversed.      The lower court in Dickerson Associates v. ShinYoung 3670, LLC, Case No. B232074 (2d Dist., Div. 2 Nov. 14, 2012) (unpublished) denied an attorney’s fees award to a prevailing party under a contractual fees clause allowing recovery for “legal expenses.” The trial judge apparently believed

Costs/Deadlines/Probate: Because Probate Code Does Not Require A Formal Judgment, 15-Day Costs Memorandum Filing Deadline Ran From Clerk Served Notice Of Ruling Denying Cross-Petition

Cases: Costs, Cases: Deadlines, Cases: Probate

       Although one living partner in a joint venture with a deceased partner lost a probate cross-petition battle regarding distribution of shares from the joint venture, living/nonprevailing partner was successful in resisting the subsequent costs award in favor of the prevailing parties.      Reason? It was untimely filed.      As explained in Friedman v.

Equity/Prevailing Party: Trial Court’s Failure To Specify Fee Entitlement Basis Required Remand Of Fee Award

Cases: Equity, Cases: Prevailing Party

  Not Clear If Fee Award Based on Partition Claim or Not.      In a tenant-in-common apartment building dispute (complete with a partition claim), a plaintiff appealed a lower court determination that defendants were entitled to fees of $6,087, arguing there was no clear identification of the statutory basis for the fee award.      That

Costs/Fees As Damages: Costs Of Appraisal Sought To Be Recovered Under Contractual Fees Clause Not Obtainable Based On Failure To Provide Proof At Damages Stage Of Case

Cases: Costs, Cases: Fees as Damages

       The prevailing party in Gardner v. McCoy, Case No. C067564 (3d Dist. Nov. 13, 2012) (unpublished) was bummed when the lower court did not award him the costs of an appraisal under a lease clause saying that the successful party would recover his “costs and expenses.” That ruling by the trial judge was

Prevailing Party: Trial Court Did Not Err In Finding Neither Party Prevailed In HOA Driveway Characterization/Slander Of Title Dispute

Cases: Homeowner Associations, Cases: Prevailing Party, Cases: Standard of Review

       In Mankowski v La Cumbre Owners Assn., Inc., Case No. B236025 (2d Dist., Div. 6 Nov. 13, 2012) (unpublished), plaintiff townhouse owner was apparently really mad that the trial court found no one prevailed in her slander of title/declaratory relief action over the characterization of a driveway after her sister contributed to her

Section 1717: Fee Award To Contract Nonsignatory Reversed Because Nonsignatory Cannot Recover Fees On Noncontract Claims

Cases: Landlord/Tenant, Cases: Nonsignatories, Cases: Section 1717

  $49,500 Fee Award Reversed.      Tenant must have felt pretty good after winning $49,500 in attorney’s fees under Civil Code section 1717 after Landlords voluntarily dismissed with prejudice a mixed contract/tort case after Tenant filed a summary judgment claiming that he was not a party to a leasing agreement and that his signature was

Substantiation Of Reasonableness Of Fee Requests: N.D.Cal. Magistrate Judge Takes A Sickle To Discovery Sanctions Free Requests by Samsung And Apple

Cases: Reasonableness of Fees

  Block Billing, Failure to Describe Tasks, and Insufficient Hourly Rate Proof Were the Main Infirmities. Above:  Ancient Greek iron sickle.  Author:  Giovanni Dall’Orto.  Wikimedia Commons.      U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul S. Grewal of the Northern District of California, in Apple, Inc v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., et al., Case No. C 11-1846 LHK (PSG)

In The News . . . . Patrick J. Lamb Provides 13 Tips For Preparing Value-Fee Engagement Letter . . . And Nonequity Partner Compensation Is All Over the Board

In The News

  13 Tips for Fashioning a Value-Fee Engagement Letter.      Patrick J. Lamb, in a November 7, 2012 post in the on-line version of the ABA Journal, offers these list of issues to be addressed in an engagement letter using value fees (although many of them sound good in retainer agreements in general):      1.

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