Cases: Special Fee Shifting Statutes

FEHA: 25% Of Requested Fees Awarded Based On Apportionment

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

Second District, Division 3 Sustains Application of Negative Multiplier Based on Plaintiff Prevailing On Only One of Four Claims.      The California Fair Employment and Housing Act, Government Code section 12900 et seq. (FEHA), has a mandatory fee-shifting provision for prevailing plaintiffs. (Gov. Code, sec. 12965(b).) Nonetheless, it is tempered by mandating only awards of […]

Harassment Prohibition Orders: Attorney’s Fees Awarded To Winning Defendant

Cases: Special Fee Shifting Statutes

  CCP Section 527.6(i) “Prevailing Party” Language Is Broad, Rules the First District.      Code of Civil Procedure section 527.6(i) authorizes a discretionary award of attorney’s fees and court costs to the prevailing party in an action to obtain a TRO or preliminary injunction prohibiting harassment. The First District, Division 5 rebuffed a losing litigant’s

Another POOF!: Defendants’ $55,000 Fees/Costs Award Goes Away When Court of Appeal Reverses Summary Judgment In Landlord-Tenant Lawsuit

Cases: POOF!, Cases: Special Fee Shifting Statutes

  Reversal Means Award Goes POOF!      The POOF! principle got illustrated again, recently, in Spinks v. Equity Residential Briarwood Apartments, Case No. H031468 (6th Dist. Mar. 4, 2009) (certified for publication). There, landlords had obtained a summary judgment against tenant in a contentious landlord-tenant lawsuit after tenant’s employer terminated her and asked the landlord

Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act and Fair Debt Collection Practices Act: Practitioners Should Get Higher Hourly Rates Based On Two Companion Ninth Circuit Decisions

Cases: Lodestar, Cases: Special Fee Shifting Statutes

Federal Court of Appeals Determines That A Broader Relevant Market Study, Not Just Past LHWCA Awards, Is In Order.      The Ninth Circuit recently decided two decisions that will likely result in higher hourly rates in the lodestar analysis for practitioners submitting fee recovery requests in LHWCA cases, a result that follows from a past

Trade Secret Misappropriation: Sixth District Affirms $1,114,930 Attorney’s Fees Award To Defense For Bad Faith Trade Secret Misappropriation Claim

Cases: Special Fee Shifting Statutes, Cases: Standard of Review, Cases: Trade Secrets

Court of Appeal Applies Gemini Bad Faith Test Under Civil Code Section 3426.4.      Civil Code section 3426.4 is a special fee-shifting provision in the trade secret misappropriation area. It authorizes a trial court to make a discretionary award of fees and costs to the prevailing party “if a claim of misappropriation is made in

Tree Injury: Successful Plaintiff Not Awarded Attorney’s Fees In Light Of Plaintiff’s Recovery Of Doubling “Penalty”

Cases: Special Fee Shifting Statutes

  Fourth District, Division 1 Affirms Trial Court’s Discretionary Refusal to Award Fees.       Trees seem to be a popular subject of dispute between neighbors, either because they are destroyed as part of new construction or because they block scenic views of the ocean/nearby canyons. There are some special penalty and fee-shifting provisions relating to

Shareholder Derivative Actions: Prevailing Defendants Must Look To Bond For Recovery Unless Independent Basis Exists For More Fees

Cases: Special Fee Shifting Statutes

Fifth District Finds that Corporations Code Section 800 Is a Bond/Security Statute, Not Fee Liability Statute.      The Fifth District, in West Hills Farms, Inc. v. RCO Ag Credit, Inc., Case No. F054748 (5th Dist. Jan. 26, 2009) (certified for partial publication), found that a prevailing defendant in a shareholder derivative action is limited to

Withdrawn Cross-Claim Subject to Fee Shifting Means No Prevailing Party Under Retention “Prompt Payment” Statute

Cases: Prevailing Party, Cases: Special Fee Shifting Statutes

  Owners Did Not Prevail Because Contractor Withdrew Cross-Claim During Deposition and Never Pursued Recovery Under It.      Courts like to encourage narrowing of disputes by litigants. The next case illustrates how a non-prevailing contractor avoided attorney’s fees exposure under Civil Code section 3260(g), which authorizes fees/costs to the prevailing party involving a claim that

Arbitration: Arbitrator’s Fee Award Modified By Appellate Court Based On Finding “No Anchor” For Fee Recovery

Cases: Allocation, Cases: Arbitration, Cases: Section 1717, Cases: Special Fee Shifting Statutes

First District, Division 2 Demonstrates Appellate Scrutiny Of Basis For Fee Award.      In past posts (see, e.g., our July 15, 2008 post on Patel v. Sagar), we have reviewed appellate decisions involving scrutiny of arbitration awards. Several decisions have affirmed arbitrator fee awards even though there was no clear basis, either by contract or

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