Inquiry Is Factually Based; At The End, Other Spouse Did Not Show That There Was A True Attorney-Client Independent Representation.
We have posted often on Trope v. Katz, 11 Cal.4th 274 (1995), which held that lawyers appearing in pro per to litigate their own claims cannot recover prevailing party contractual claims under Civil Code section 1717. Gogal v. Deng, Case No D084405 (4th Dist., Div. 1 July 22, 2025) (published) considered whether an attorney-spouse representing himself and his wife on a claim or defense shared with their spouse was automatically disqualified from obtaining fees performed by the lawyer-spouse. Gogal answered “no,” having to consider the Gorman and Rickley opinions coming to seemingly inconsistent results. It sided with Rickley to give a more factually nuanced result on whether there was truly a professional relationship between spouses, or the attorney spouse was just making decisions. Unfortunately, in the end, the record did not support that the non-attorney spouse was enough involved in the decision making so that prevailing tenants were entitled to fees.