Ninth Circuit Determines 2007 Catalyst Amendments Are Not Retroactive in Nature. Under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552, a complainant in a FOIA action is deemed to be eligible for an award of attorney’s fees if he has “substantially prevailed” on his claim. 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(4)(E) (prior to 2007 amendments). […]
Nontestimonial Expert Costs Cannot Be Recouped Under FLSA. A colleague that co-contributor Mike worked with at a past law firm called and asked if expert witness fees for nontestimonial work were recoverable by a plaintiff in an action brought under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA), given that 29 U.S.C. § 216(b)
Fees Can Be Awarded Under Labor Code section 98.2(c). An employer is entitled to an award of reasonable attorney’s fees, in an amount to be determined by the trial court, when an employee unsuccessfully appeals from a Labor Commissioner’s ruling to the trial court. (Lab. Code sec. 98.2(c).) Cooper v. Golden Gate Reporters, LLC,
First District, Division 1 Holds that Civil Code section 1788.30(c) Language Does Not Preclude Use of Multipliers. Civil Code section 1788.30(c), part of the Robbins-Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, allows a prevailing debtor enforcing any liability under the Act to recover “reasonable attorney’s fees, which shall be based on time necessarily expended to
Third District Affirms Contempt Order, But Reverses Fee Order On Due Process Grounds. For those of you having an interest in contempt proceedings (which are quasi-criminal in nature), the next case is for you. It also reinforces that fee awards must be crafted with regard to giving an opponent adequate due process rights.
District Court Will Reconsider Fees Upon Remand. The Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552 (FOIA), does contain a provision allowing district courts to award fees and costs to parties “substantially prevailing” as against the United States under the statute. (5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(4)(E).) This statute, upon which California’s Public Records Act is
Unpublished Decision Faces Some Interesting Fee-Shifting Issues In ADA Case. Many of the California intermediate appellate unpublished decisions we examine have some very interesting legal issues for jurists to grapple with and resolve.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
Plaintiff’s $719,000 Fees/Costs Award Goes POOF! We have surveyed several decisions in our category “POOF” that illustrate the principle that many reversals (partial or in full) will require a reversal of a fee/costs award and remand to reconsider after the dust has finally settled on the reversed claims in subsequent trial court proceedings. That
Fourth District, Division 1 “Multitasks” in Covering a Wide Gamut of Fee Issues in Recent Unpublished Opinion. Here is a review of a complex and wild decision covering a myriad of remedy and fees issues in the context of City of Novato’s dispute with a developer and its successor over performance of two separate
Ninth Circuit Addresses First Impression Issue, Departing From Result Reached by Other Federal Courts. The Federal Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), at 15 U.S.C. section 1692k(a)(3), provides that a district judge may award to the defendant reasonable attorney’s fees on a finding that an FDCPA action was brought “in bad faith and for the
