Hourly Rate Arrangements Eclipse Flat Rate Agreements By A Substantial Margin. 8 am, on October 22, 2026, issued the 8am SMB Law Billing and Payments Report (available on the Internet)—based on an analysis of billing and payment trends for the first half of 2026 from 60,000-plus U.S. firms—showing that hourly billing arrangements remain prevalent among
In The End, The Defense May Have Gotten The Better Side Of It, But The Appellate Court Rejected That Nothing Was Owed To Plaintiff—The Reduced Fee Award Affirmed In No Uncertain Terms In A Remanded Voting Rights Case. We hardly know where to start on this one, but Robles v. City of Ontario, Case No.
Lessons From These Decisions—Substantiate Fees In Detailed Fashion In California Federal Cases And Do Not Request Excessive Hourly Rates. Two Google cases in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, offer some guidance for class action/common fund practitioners on what to do and not do when requesting a substantial fee recovery in either a
Small Reductions Were Made, And No Allocation Was Required. Under both Washington’s Uniform Trade Secrets Act and the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act, there are attorney’s fees shifting provisions in favor of a prevailing plaintiff proving that the trade secret was willfully and maliciously misappropriated. These fee entitlements were operative in Silver Fern Chemical, Inc.
However, Rates Are Higher In Coastal Areas Versus More Agricultural Areas. Javi Perez, in a June 2026 post on LegalCostGuides.com, has reported that the 2026 Clio benchmark for California attorneys is $422 per hour statewide, which includes higher Bay Area/Los Angeles rates and lower Central Valley rates. Here is his more refined analysis of geographic
