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 4th fireworks.
The basis for the fee claim is California’s private attorney general statute, which allows attorneys to obtain fees for vindicating public interest issues under certain circumstances.
The City will be opposing the fee request at a November 18, 2011 hearing, claiming that the request is unreasonable.
Opponents see this as a shakedown request, while others believe that taking away fee recovery in CEQA suits would “essentially take away the enforcement” altogether. (Apparently, a 2.0 multiplier is being requested in this dispute, so it should be interesting no matter which side you take.)