Private Attorney General Statutes Justified The Award.
In a case garnering attention in a May 1, 2026 article “Judge says city must pay $1M in court fees” published in the May 1, 2026 edition of The Orange County Register, Orange County Superior Court Judge Lindsey E. Martinez did award four organizations, in a tentative ruling, $959,853.73 in attorney’s fees under CCP § 1021.5 for prevailing in a case against City of Huntington Beach for violating the California Freedom to Read Act, based on a dispute where City restricted minors’ access to certain books at the city’s library having sexual content without parental consent.
We attach Judge Martinez’s tentative ruling here. It recognized that vindicating the Act did vindicate freedom of expression. Petitioners tried to resolve the dispute before a case was filed, but with no success—further supporting a private attorney general fee award. Petitioners were not seeking monetary relief, so that no financial cost/benefit analysis was necessary, and only Petitioners were trying to vindicate the freedom of expression interests as against City. With this said, Judge Martinez did sustain high requested hourly rates, but she did find there were some inefficiencies and overstaffing concerns, which resulted in a 20% reduction to the adjusted lodestar request. The lower court also denied a 1.25 positive multiplier request, finding that the higher hourly rates adequately compensated counsel for their work.
