Cases: Fee Clause Interpretation

Attorneys Successfully Sue Former Client For Collection Of Full Receivable Plus Attorney’s Fees In Collecting The Receivable

Cases: Fee Clause Interpretation, Cases: Substantiation of Reasonableness of Fees

Recent Case Illustrates the Right Way to Handle A Dispute in Segments and Highlights Good Provisions to Have in Retainer Agreement             In Fitzgerald Abbott & Beardsley LLP v. Miller, Case No. A118762 (1st Dist., Div. 3 July 31, 2008) (unpublished), Former Client hired Attorneys to resolve a dispute with Client’s neighbors […]

Winning Joint Venture Litigant Denied Attorney’s Fees Because The Operative Memorandum Of Understanding Had No Fees Clauses And Other Peripheral Contracts With Fees Clauses Were Not Part of An Integrated Transaction

Cases: Fee Clause Interpretation, Cases: Section 1717, Cases: Standard of Review

Sixth District Finds That Stock Option and Voting Trust Agreements Were Not Interrelated and Never Sued Upon In Winning Litigant’s Complaint.             Under Civil Code section 1717, one needs a written agreement with a fee clause for potential attorney’s fees recovery.  Many times, there are several agreements involved in an overall transaction,

Suing Real Estate Buyers, Who Were Defensed At Judgment On The Pleadings Stage, Were Not Stung With Real Estate Purchase Contractual Fees By Victorious Brokers, But Did Suffer Fee Exposure From Lis Pendens Expungement Proceeding

Cases: Fee Clause Interpretation, Cases: Lis Pendens, Cases: Section 1717

Third District Affirms Award of Lis Pendens Expungement Fees to Brokers and Sustains Denial of Attorney’s Fees to Brokers Under Real Estate Purchase Agreement Fee Clause.             This next case deals with contractual fee awards under Civil Code section 1717 and fees assessed against a party that lost a lis pendens expungement

Appellate Court Reverses Non-Prevailing Party Determination Because Client Defensed Attorney on Contract Claim In A Jury Trial

Cases: Fee Clause Interpretation, Cases: Prevailing Party, Cases: Standard of Review

Second District Remands For Settling the Reasonable Amount of Attorney’s Fees and Costs.             Usually, prevailing party determinations are reviewed under the abuse of discretion standard on appeal.  Not always, however.  Sometimes the contractual fees clause is clear in specifying a prevailing party and one side wins a final judgment in their

Real Estate Sales Contract Allows Plaintiffs to Recover Attorney’s Fees for Judicial Proceedings Connected with Arbitration

Cases: Fee Clause Interpretation, Cases: Substantiation of Reasonableness of Fees

Fifth District Drops Some Tantalizing Dicta About The Causal Relationship Necessary to Conclude Disputes “Arise Out of a Contract” for Purposes of Awarding Fees.             Although one might think that unpublished decisions only involve mundane issues of legal application, our posts have shown that they frequently confront novel issues or provide dicta

Plaintiff’s Professional Malpractice Claim, Although Involving A Contractual Relationship, Was Not “On the Contract” So As To Allow Fee Recovery Under Civil Code Section 1717

Cases: Fee Clause Interpretation

First District Recognizes the Distinction In Affirming Trial Court Decision Refusing To Award Fees to a Winning Plaintiff.             Client retained Former Attorneys to represent his interests as a creditor in a bankruptcy proceeding.  Client signed a retainer agreement providing that Attorneys would use their best efforts to represent Client’s interests and

Routine Costs Can Include Court-Appointed Assistants Necessary to the Litigation and Attorney’s Fees Clauses in Several Agreements Will be Interpreted in an Integrated Fashion

Cases: Costs, Cases: Fee Clause Interpretation, Cases: Standard of Review

Fourth District, Division One So Holds In Partnership Dissolution Case.             In our June 27, 2008 post, we examined Roberts v. Ross, a recent Fourth District, Division One unpublished case construing trial court discretion to award certain non-specified, non-prohibited costs as routine costs “necessary for the litigation” under a catchall provision, Code

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