Target is 150 Day Resolution From Date of Preliminary Conference. Co-contributor Mike participated in a JAMS Roundtable last year in the Orange, California office. One of the themes addressed was the need to address the rising costs of private arbitration as an ADR process in general (including the attorney’s fees to engage in arbitration). […]
Appellants Had Only Contested Amount of Fees Below, Not Raising Problems With Fee Entitlement. Here is one from the Third District that serves to underscore a crucial lesson for both trial and appellate practitioners: raise challenges at the lower court level or risk having them declared waived at the appellate level. That happened
Substantial Fee Award Sought In $3.4 Billion Class Action Settlement. As reported in a February 2, 2011 post in law.com by Mike Scarcella, Washington lawyer Dennis Gingold and Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton, who settled a class action alleging the government mismanaged billions of dollars held in trust flowing from the use of Indian
Orange County Superior Court Awards Are Being Appealed to Fourth District, Division 3. As reported by Erika I. Ritchie in an article in the February 2, 2011 edition of The Orange County Register, Lake Forest BodyCentre–a massage parlor shut down by the City of Lake Forest–was hit with certain adverse awards in favor of
Second District, Division 6 Finds Intervenor Was In Same Position As Parties to the Lawsuit for Fee Shifting Purposes. Here is a case involving an interven0r for our category “Intervenors”–a category that we have not posted on for some time. The case is Larson v. Las Posas Hills Homeowners Assn., Case No. B219066 (2d
Prompt Payment Statute Fee Shifting Was Now In Play For City. When a judgment is reversed as a matter of law by an appellate court in favor of the other side, that usually means good things for the other side–any fee and costs awards go POOF! and the prior losing party may prevail so
District Judge Properly Denied Expert Fees Requested Under § 998 Because More Restrictive Federal Law Applied. In First National Mortgage Co. v. Federal Realty Investment Trust, Nos. 9-16377 et al. (9th Cir. Feb. 1, 2011) (for publication), plaintiff won a breach of contract case, but the district court refused to award it expert witness
Abuse of Discretion Standard Did Not Prevent Reversal When Record Showed Errors, According to Sixth District. In an interesting contrast to the way the abuse of discretion standard was deferentially applied in our contemporaneous post in Murrell v. Rolling Hills Community Association, the Sixth District found that the trial court abused its discretion in
Second District, Division 1 Finds No Abuse of Discretion in Various Fee Awards. It is amazing how ocean views, privacy, and trees all seem to be in the mix of many neighbor/homeowner association disputes. The next one is no exception, producing substantial cross-fee awards under Civil Code section 1354 that probably only made the
Reasons: Issue Was Not Of Substantial Importance And Form Interrogatory Responses Effectively Explained Denial. In Wilson v. Lightner, Case No. D055083 (4th Dist., Div. 1 Jan. 31, 2011) (not for publication), parties in a bitter easement dispute reached a denouement when the trial court awarded successful defendants a postjudgment award of $341,295 as costs
