In The News

  Fee Request Was Ruled To Be Premature In Nature.      In a follow-up to our post of October 25, 2011, San Diego Superior Court Judge Linda Quinn denied a requested $756,132 in attorney’s fees under California’s private attorney statute by attorney Mario Gonzalez for winning a case challenging San Diego’s fireworks permitting process. She […]

  Even Fees/Costs Spent On Lost Claims Were Recoverable.      35 U.S.C. § 285 does allow district judges discretion to award attorney’s fees and costs in a patent infringement case that is “exceptional,” which usually means a determination that the litigation was brought and/or prosecuted in bad faith. This provision was used to award a

       As reported by Kathleen Wilson in a November 3, 2011 post at vcstar.com, Ventura County Superior Court Judge Henry Walsh granted the Ventura County Taxpayers Association’s request for fees, awarding it $30,855 (with a slight reduction of only about $2,500) for obtaining release of the names of six-figure county pensioners from the Board

       Steve Pappas, who lost to Doreen Farr in his quest for Santa Barbara’s 3rd District Supervisorial seat by a slim number of votes, was hit with attorney’s fees of around $525,000 (after factoring in an arithmetic error) for losing a case against her. Now, Mr. Pappas is appealing the amount of the award

Rough Weather:  No Safe Haven for Righthaven in Legal Shit Storms.      In our September 30, 2011 post, we talked about Righthaven, LLC of Las Vegas, which is a newspaper copyright infringer filer that files suits against persons for using stories or photographs published in certain papers.      Well, it was recently ordered to pay

     As reported by Mike Lee in an October 20, 2011 post on SignOnSanDiego.com, environmental lawyer Marco Gonzalez recently filed a motion with the San Diego County Superior Court to be awarded $756,132 in attorney’s fees by the City of San Diego for winning a CEQA lawsuit over the fireworks-related pollution of last summer’s July

  MGA and Its Former Law Firm O’Melveny & Myers Have Reached Tentative Settlement.      In the fallout from the MGA-Mattel battle, MGA Entertainment’s former counsel O’Melveny & Myers had sued MGA to collect $10.2 million in disputed billings for O’Melveny’s former role in the Mattel litigation (representing MGA from 2007 to 2007). MGA had

  Quinn Emanuel Entitled to $13 Million Contingency Fee For Settlement With Facebook.      Ever seen the film “The Social Network”? It deals with the dispute between the Winklevoss twins and social-media giant Facebook. Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, a well-known Los Angeles trial firm, helped the twins reach a $65 million settlement in a

     We thank co-contributor Mike’s father-in-law Tom Basehart for sending him a folder of articles to review for possible inclusion as a posting in the blog. He was right to send these articles, because they share valuable information and trends for all of us. American Lawyer Survey About Per Partner Profits Going Up By 8.4%