Author name: Marc Alexander

Probate: Probate Volunteer Panel Counsel Entitled To Fee Award From Conservatee’s Estate Under Probate Code Section 1470(c)

Cases: Probate

  Second District, Division 3 Upholds Fee Award In Second Appeal.      In our January 8, 2010 post, we explored the appeal in Conservatorship of Davis, where the Second District, Division 3 held that Probate Code section 1470(c) did authorize the probate court to order that attorney’s fees for work by an appointed Probate Volunteer […]

Private Attorney General Statute: $258,800 Fee Award Goes Up In Smoke (POOF!) Based On Karuk Decision

Cases: POOF!, Cases: Private Attorney General (CCP 1021.5)

First District, Division 2 Uses Hunting and Boxing Analogies in Reversing Fee Award.      The next decision we survey involves a reversal driven by the same apppellate court’s earlier decision in Karuk Tribe of No. Calif. v. Calif. Regional Water Quality Control Bd., 183 Cal.App.4th 330, 364-369 (2010) [discussed in our March 30, 2010 post].

In the News: Judge Milton Shadur Shoots Down Fee Petition in High Stakes Gun-Rights Litigation

Cases: Prevailing Party, In The News

Blasted Legal Fees Unite Civil Rights Attorneys Across the Political Spectrum in Shotgun Marriage After Judge Drops the Hammer on Fee Request in 2nd Amendment Litigation.       Mike Scarcella reports in The National Law Journal (April 4, 2011, online edition) that Alan Gura, the high-caliber lawyer behind the Supreme Court’s gun-rights precedent “may lose by

Section 1717 and Prevailing Parties: Fourth District, Division One, Rules that Civil Code Section 1717’s Prevailing Party Standard, Mutuality Principle, and Reasonable Fees Standard Apply to an Attorney’s Fees Provision in a Consent Decree

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

Order Granting the People $707,882.50 in Attorney Fees and Costs of $32,673 Goes Up in Smoke, But Not to Worry, Parties Will Get to Light Up Again in Trial Court      In this appeal, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company challenged an order awarding attorney fees to the People for enforcing a Consent Decree banning participating tobacco

Probate: Second District, Division Three Concludes That Res Judicata Prevented Respondents from Relitigating Probate Dispute, and Also Deprived Trial Court of Grounds to Determine that Appellant Had to Pay Fees and Costs

Cases: Estoppel, Cases: Probate

Probate Case Has Nice Summary of Principles of Res Judicata/Collateral Estoppel      The Court of Appeals early on telegraphed the train wreck that is this case with the understated observation, “The relationship between the siblings was not optimal.” Estate of Redfield, Case No. B216190 (2nd Dist. Div. 3 4/5/11) (certified for publication).

Family Law: Fourth District, Division Three Reverses Spousal Support Order While Affirming Award of Attorney’s Fees

Cases: Family Law, Cases: Standard of Review

The Court of Appeals Finds Trial Court’s Order “Puzzling”      Husband and wife’s marriage dissolved in 1992.  In 2009, the now ex-husband filed an OSC to modify or terminate his spousal support obligation, because he planned to retire.  The trial court denied the OSC, while ordering the 66-year old ex-wife to make efforts to become

Prevailing Party/Section 998: Fourth District, Division 3 Unpublished Opinion Explores Nuances In Scope of 998 Offers And Prevailing Party Status When No Monetary Relief Obtained After Factoring of Prior Credits

Cases: Prevailing Party, Cases: Section 998

  L.A. County Gets Nada Monetary Relief After Credits, And Is Stung By Affirmance of 998 Offers by Insurers Costing It $5.9 Million.      The next one is the apparent conclusion of what our local Santa Ana appellate court analogized as being “easily the 14 Years War of civil litigation in Orange County” between Los

SLAPP: Fee Recovery Was Proper, Not Barred By The Noerr-Pennington Doctrine

Cases: SLAPP

  $125,491.81 Fee Award Against Plaintiff Sustained on Appeal.      Plaintiff, after being hit with an adverse $125,491.81 fee award after losing a SLAPP motion, challenged the fee award in Ruttlen v. County of Los Angeles, Case No. B223345 (2d Dist., Div. 3 Mar. 30, 2011) (unpublished). Her challenge was that the award was unconstitutional

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