Cases: Civil Rights

Civil Rights: ADA Total Fee Recovery Denial Reversed Where Trial Court Incorrectly Concluded That Plaintiff’s Fee-Driven Recovery Required Altogether Fee Denial

Cases: Civil Rights, Cases: Special Fee Shifting Statutes

Fourth District, Division 3 Reverses and Remands, But Does Allow Consideration of How Fee-Driven Motivation Impacts Reasonableness of Fee Request.      In the civil rights area, the American Disabilities Act (ADA) does have a mandatory fee-shifting provision in favor of prevailing plaintiffs, although it has the important caveat that only reasonable fees should be awarded.

Fee Substantiation: Plaintiff’s Declaration About Hourly Rates And Small Law Firm Survey Deemed Sufficient Substantiation For Fee Request, Especially Given No Challenge By The Defense

Cases: Civil Rights, Cases: Lodestar, Cases: Substantiation of Reasonableness of Fees

Third District Also Addresses Clerical Time and Multiplier Issues.      Plaintiff won a jury verdict of $16,536 on a failure to accommodate discrimination claim. Under the fee-shifting provisions of the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA; Government Code section 12965(b)), the trial court awarded plaintiff $189,503.40 in fees, after lodestar deductions for clerical tasks, duplicative

Civil Rights: Court Of Appeal Affirms Lower Court’s Award of $6,659.15 To Plaintiff Who Had Limited Success And Recovered Only $5,000 In Disability Case

Cases: Civil Rights, Cases: Costs, Cases: Multipliers

Second District, Division 6 Rejects Plaintiff’s Request for Award of $114,895 in Fees and $27,441.35 in Costs.      Although the courts will award appropriate attorney’s fees to prevailing plaintiffs in civil rights disability cases, they will also discount for limited success and overinflated claims of complexity in litigation of the case.      Molski v. Evergreen

Civil Rights: "The Big Chill" — Victorious Defendants Seek Attorney’s Fees from Nonprevailing Plaintiffs

Cases: Civil Rights

  But Outcome in Three Recent Cases Sends Only a Little Chill, as California Courts Rebuff Defendants’ Attempts.      Dan Levine reports in The Recorder on three recent efforts by successful defendants in civil rights cases to collect attorney’s fees from losing plaintiffs.       Plaintiffs who sued the Metropolitan Transportation Commission  challenging San Francisco Bay

Civil Rights: Rejected Informal Settlement Offers Can Be Used As An Indicator Of Success For Purposes of Calculating Attorney’s Fees Lodestar

Cases: Allocation, Cases: Civil Rights, Cases: Section 1717, Cases: Settlement

Third Circuit Court of Appeals So Holds Under 42 U.S. C. Section 1988; California State Court Decisions Split In Analogous Areas, But Ninth Circuit Disagrees.      On July 23, 2009, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, in Lohman v. Duryea Borough, __ F.3d __, 2009 WL 2183056 (3d Cir. 2009), affirmed a district judge’s decision

998 Offers, CA Tort Claims and Civil Rights Fees: Second District, Division 1 Faces A Potpourri Of Legal Issues On A Hefty ADA Civil Rights Fee Award

Cases: Civil Rights, Cases: Section 998, Cases: Special Fee Shifting Statutes

Unpublished Decision Faces Some Interesting Fee-Shifting Issues In ADA Case.      Many of the California intermediate appellate unpublished decisions we examine have some very interesting legal issues for jurists to grapple with and resolve. The next one is no exception, containing some gnarly fee-shifting issues that involve Code of Civil Procedure section 998 (pretrial offer

Federal Routine Costs and Civil Rights Fees: Ninth Circuit Rejects Creative “Prevailing Party” Costs Claim By Losing Plaintiff And Remands Denial Of Defense Fees Decision For Reconsideration

Cases: Civil Rights, Cases: Costs, Cases: Prevailing Party

Illinois Sitting Judge Shadur Raises Alchemy Analogy in Court of Appeal Decision.      Federal court costs are routinely rewarded to the prevailing party—especially the party winning a summary judgment motion or trial against a plaintiff. Even though this happened in the context of a summary judgment proceeding, the plaintiffs in the next case tried to

Attorney’s Fees In the News …. Newport Beach Police Sgt. Neil Harvey’s Hearing For Payment Of $2.14 Million In Requested Fees Will Occur in June 2009

Cases: Civil Rights, Off Topics

His Attorneys Are Seeking a $1 Million Lodestar Plus a Multiplier.      According to a May 14, 2009 article by Joseph Serna in the Daily Pilot, civil attorneys representing Newport Beach police Sgt. Neil Harvey, who obtained a favorable civil rights award of $1.2 million from a jury earlier this year, will be moving for

CDPA: Plaintiff Awarded $3,000 Fees Out Of Requested $33,918.20 Where He Only Recovered $1,000 Statutory Damages

Cases: Civil Rights

Second District, Division 5 Finds No Abuse of Discretion, But Provides Tantalizing Dicta on Statement of Decision Requirements in Unpublished Decision; It Also Reminds Everyone to Provide a Reporter’s Transcript on Appeal.      The next case may seem mundane, but does give some insights into the thought process of judges when confronting fee awards where

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