Off Topics

Melange of Interesting Off Topics in the News All Center on Attorney’s Fees.      “In law, nothing is certain but the expense.”      –Samuel Butler      Samuel Butler put it well; here are three interesting vignettes for news stories that all center on attorney’s fees issues. CA School District Struggles to Pay Adverse Title IX

     Although we rarely venture out of the attorney’s fees area, we commend for reading the Fourth District, Division Three’s recent published decision in Oldcastle Precast, Inc. v. Lumbermens Mutual Cas. Co., Case No. G038645 (4th Dist., Div. 3 Jan. 23, 2009).      In a 3-0 decision authored by Justice Fybel, the appellate court provided

Author of the Barrister Character Who Was Rebellious, Self-Absorbed, and Thoroughly English in Mannerisms.      On Friday, January 16, 2009, John Mortimer died in his home in Oxfordshire, England at the age of 85. Mr. Mortimer was the creator of Horace Rumpole, a rebellious, cigar-smoking British barrister who defended criminal clients and tried most of

  Attorney/Author Philip Howard Thinks So, A Theory Advanced In His Book “Life Without Lawyers: Liberating Americans from Too Much Law.”      With many reviewers hailing it as a thoughtful plea for a return to common sense, attorney Philip K. Howard has written a recent book entitled “Life Without Lawyers: Liberating Americans from Too Much

Edition Discusses Feldman, Shopoff, and Stroud.      Two articles in the January 2009 edition of the Orange County Lawyer discuss fee issues of interest in the area of family law and ethics.      In “Executive Divorce,” authored by attorney Lisa Hughes, there is a discussion of Marriage of Feldman, 153 Cal.App.4th 1470 (2007). There, the

Recent Editorials By Chicago and New York Attorneys Reenergize the Debate.      In the August 2007 American Bar Journal, novelist Scott Turow—himself a partner in Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal (a large Chicago law firm)—wrote an article entitled “The Billable Hour Must Die.” Among other things, he noted that the yearly hour targets for young associates

State Trends: Trial Courts Dispose of Most Cases Within 18 Months and Jury Trials Are Decreasing in Numbers.      Cal Biz Lit, one of our recommended fellow bloggers, posted the Judicial Council of California’s 2008 Court Statistics Report for the most recent fiscal year, 2006-2007. We share the nuggets of information that we gleaned from

Article is Entitled, "When the American Rule Doesn't Apply:  Attorney's Fees as Damages in California Litigation"      The co-contributors to this blawg, William M. ("Mike") Hensley and Marc Alexander, have published an article about attorney's fees as damages in California Litigation, the Journal of the Litigation Section, State Bar of California, Volume 21, Number 3, 2008,

Part 2 Follow-up From Our October 30, 2008 Post.      In our October 30, 2008 post, we provided highlights from a civil justice survey of state courts in 2005, which primarily focused on the nation’s 75 most populous counties. (The California counties surveyed were Alameda, Contra Costa, Fresno, Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, San Francisco,