Plus, Blog Observation on Anecdotal Application to Appeals Involving Fee Awards. We give a hat tip both to Benjamin Shatz of En Banc and Greg May of The California Blog of Appeal for highlighting the Judicial Council of California’s recent issuance of the “2008 Court Statistic Report” for California courts during […]
First District, Division Five Provides a Nice Review of CCP 998 Principles in Affirming Trial Court Award of Costs to Defendant After Plaintiff Failed to Beat 998 Offer at Trial. At some point, most litigators will (or should) become aware of Code of Civil Procedure section 998, a provision that allows
Court of Appeal Sustains Reductions by Trial Court and Suggests That Fees Expended by the Opposition Has Probative Value in Fee Proceedings. In Horsford v. Board of Trustees of California State University (Horsford I), 132 Cal.App.4th 359, 402 (2005), the Fifth District Court of Appeal determined a trial court had applied
Appellate Panel Rejects Beneficiaries’ Challenge Under Probate Code Section 11003 As Inapt. We would like to welcome probate practitioners to our blog. This is one of our inaugural posts on the discretion probate courts possess to award extraordinary fees to attorneys. Given this discretion, we would surmise that few appeals are
Court of Appeal Sustains Lower Court Determination That Opposition Fee Effort Does Not Have To Be Considered. Plaintiff and defendants settled a Home Equity Sales Contract Act case that crops up frequently in this age of subprime lender fallout cases. A settlement was reached by which the trial court was imbued
District Court Will Not Award Requested $2 Million in Fees Sought by Individual Plaintiffs. In early August 2008, the Ninth Circuit decided that anything more than a 10% fee "haircut" to prevailing civil rights plaintiffs is seldom justifiable unless specific reasons are set forth for more drastic reductions. See Moreno v.
Fourth District, Division One Cannot Reconcile Award, But Gives Respondents A Choice For Outright Affirmance With No Remand Proceedings. Once in a while, you see a case where appellate jurists display some uncanny savvy in resolving an appeal. In the next case, the appellate panel had difficulty reconciling a costs award
Dismissal Without Prejudice Does Not Mean A Winning Litigant “Prevails” for Purposes of the Fee Entitlement Statute. Under the Individual with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), a court may award reasonable attorney’s fees “to a prevailing party who is a State educational agency or local educational agency against the attorney of a
Second District, Division Five Dismisses Appeal as Moot Based on Settlement Agreement Reached During Appeal Process. As we blogs have chronicled for several months, attorney’s fees recoveries can make or break a litigant—unless there is untold wealth backing the litigants in many of these situations. A prevailing litigant can gain a
Second District, Division Eight Affirms PUC’s Decision Denying Substantial Backend Fees and a Multiplier to Intervenor. Because attorney’s fee issues are pervasive, we now have a post of interest to lawyers who practice before the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC). The Utility Reform Network (TURN) intervened in
