Cases: Lodestar

Rent Stabilization Ordinance: Winning Plaintiffs In Wrongful Eviction Action Awarded $306,321.50 In Attorney’s Fees

Cases: Lodestar, Cases: Special Fee Shifting Statutes

Lodestar Is the Standard, and Attorney Still Entitled to Lodestar Fees Even Where Client Agreement Was Below Market or Discounted in Nature. The lodestar method is the one used most often by trial courts in awarding both attorney’s fees under contractual provisions and fee-shifting statutes. What about county ordinances containing fee-shifting sections? Answer: lodestar also. […]

Class Actions: Class Action Fee Settlement Remanded Because Trial Judge Failed To Use Lodestar Method

Cases: Class Actions, Cases: Lodestar

  $20,000 Fee Award Reversed Where Class Action Attorney Requested $263,606 in Fees.      The next case illustrates that California courts generally require use of the lodestar method in non-common fund cases. Trial judges cannot simply use the common fund method in a case that really isn’t a fund case; in these instances, the lodestar

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

Class Actions: $3 Million Fee/Costs Award Affirmed in B&P Section 17200 Consumer Privacy Class Action Against Bank of America

Cases: Class Actions, Cases: Lodestar

First District, Division 5 Rejects Clear Sailing Clause/Class Counsel Conflict Challenges to Fee Award.      In the next case that we review, the Court of Appeal dealt with “clear sailing clauses” in class action settlements and the claim that class counsel conflicts in obtaining fees need “structural” review. The appellate panel found that these clauses

Private Attorney General Statute: Trial Court Properly Awarded Plaintiffs $336,350 In Fees Rather Than Requested $1.49 Million (And Correctly Denied 2.0 Multiplier)

Cases: Lodestar, Cases: Multipliers, Cases: Private Attorney General (CCP 1021.5), Cases: Reasonableness of Fees

First District, Division 5 Determines Trial Court Properly Applied Serrano III Factors.      Even under fee-shifting, public interest statutes, our California Supreme Court in Serrano v. Priest, 20 Cal.3d 255, 49 (1977) (Serrano III) mandated that multiple factors be used to increase or decrease a lodestar figure requested by victorious litigants. In the next case

Private Attorney General Statute: Lodestar Fee Award Affirmed, But Multiplier Determination Remanded For Further Consideration

Cases: Lodestar, Cases: Private Attorney General (CCP 1021.5)

First District, Division 1 Suggests Trial Courts Should Explain Multiplier Determinations With Some Specificity.       For all of you attorneys practicing in areas that may trigger application of the private attorney general statute (Code of Civil Procedure section 1021.5), the next case will be of great interest. Not only does it highlight some discrepancies in

Unruh Act: Court Of Appeal Affirms $12,436 Attorney’s Fees Award Based On Limited Success Of Plaintiff

Cases: Civil Rights, Cases: Lodestar, Cases: Special Fee Shifting Statutes

  In a Split Opinion, Second District, Division 6 Rejects Plaintiff’s Requested $24,871.75 In Light of His Recovery of $4,000 Minimum Statutory Damages.      In cases involving mandatory fee-shifting statutes (such as the Unruh Act, Civil Code section 52(a)), we have seen an emerging theme that encompasses a large number of attorney’s fees recoveries: the

Cases Under Review: U.S. Supreme Court Grants Certiorari To Resolve Split On Fee Enhancements

Cases: Cases Under Review, Cases: Civil Rights, Cases: Lodestar

  Issue Is Whether District Judges Can Enhance Lodestar Based Solely on Quality of Attorney Performance and Results Obtained Under Federal Fee-Shifting Statute.      Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari on an attorney’s fees issues that has generated a split among federal appellate courts on whether district judges can enhance lodestars based solely on

FEHA: Court of Appeal Affirms Award Of Lower Fee Award To Winning Plaintiff

Cases: Civil Rights, Cases: Lodestar, Cases: Special Fee Shifting Statutes

First District, Division 4 Sustains Fee Award of $676,001 Based on a 1.25 Multiplier, Rather than Plaintiff’s Requested $940,590.87 Lodestar Plus a Proposed 2.0 Multiplier.      The First District, Division 4, in the unpublished decision of Tarver v. City and County of San Francisco, Case No. A116731 (1st Dist., Div. 4 Mar. 23, 2009) (unpublished),

Scroll to Top