Know Who Your Client Is
When you’re suing a client for your attorney fees, it might be helpful to know who your client is. A law firm’s failure to establish that prevents its recovery of fees in Shimko v. Guenther, case no....
View ArticlePotentially Void Judgment Reversed on the Merits
Here’s a post I’ve been saving for a time where I’m too busy to spend much time on new content. I may get a post up later in the day, but in the meantime, I’ll get on my soapbox about why I think the...
View ArticleAppeal after Remand to State Court: Was Removal Reasonable?
The Ninth Circuit reminds us in Gardner v. MEGA Life & Health Ins. Co., case no. 06-55045 (9th Cir. Nov. 19, 2007), that even though no appeal lies from an order remanding a removed action to state...
View ArticleAre Stipulated Judgments Appealable?
Well . . . yes and no. Or better yet, mostly no, and occasionally yes. And to discover the difference between those that are and those that aren’t, an excellent starting point is yesterday’s decision...
View ArticleSplit of Authority re Mandatory Relief under CCP § 473(b)
The first time I read Code of Civil Procedure section 473(b) and the practice guides about it, it horrified me. There I was, a very young lawyer at a BigLaw firm, reading that the court must grant...
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My Attorney Fee Article in CITATIONS
I have an article in this month’s issue of CITATIONS, the monthly magazine of the Ventura County Bar Association, and for which I serve on the editorial board. The article is an expanded version of...
View ArticlePost-Arbitration Petition Attorney Fee Order is Appealable
In Otay River Constructors v. San Diego Expressway, case no. D049612 (4th Dist. Jan. 7, 2008), the Court of Appeal holds that an order denying an award of contractual attorney fees to a party who...
View ArticleRecovery of Fees for Pre-Litigation Activities
In this post at The Opening Brief, Tom Caso discusses an attorney fee case that I missed last month (geez, it hurts to admit that). The case, Hogar v. Community Development Commission, case no. D049452...
View ArticleMore on California’s Private Attorney General Statute
This post at The UCL Practitioner notes an article about a case being argued today in the California Supreme Court (Olson v. Automobile Club of Southern California, no. S143999) addressing whether...
View ArticleJury Foreman’s Blog a Likely Issue on Appeal
A local trial court has just denied a new trial motion based on juror misconduct, where the misconduct was the jury foreman’s blogging about the gang member’s 19-day murder trial while it was going on,...
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Pro Bono Attorney Fees in the News Again
National Law Journal has a new article called Pro Bono Case Triggers a Fee Fight on the controversy surrounding the attempt of a Seattle BigLaw firm (Davis Wright Tremaine) seeking to recover its...
View ArticleA “Cautionary Tale” on Post-Judgment Interest when Court of Appeals Directs...
It’s always frustrating when you have to litigate over issues stemming from a court’s failure to do something that it should have done or even was required to do. Just ask the Oakland Raiders, who saw...
View ArticleReview of “Private Attorney General” Fee Awards
Kimberly Kralowec at The Appellate Practitioner points out a case from earlier this month, Roybal v. Governing Board of the Salinas City Elementary School District, case no. H030596 (Jan. 11, 2008,...
View ArticleSelf-Represented Attorney May Not Recover Fees on Anti-SLAPP Motion
In Taheri Law Group v. Neil C. Evans, case no. B192828 (2d Dist. Feb. 26, 2008), the Court of Appeal holds that the attorney fee provision in the anti-SLAPP statute (Code Civ. Proc., § 425.16) does not...
View ArticleExpert Witness Fees May Not Be Awarded Under Private Attorney General Statute
In a decision being closely watched by many, the California Supreme Court holds today in Olson v. Automobile Club of Southern California, case no. S143999 (Feb. 28, 2008), that Code of Civil Procedure...
View ArticleAnother Private AG Fees Case Headed for the Supremes?
Well, we just had one Supreme Court opinion on the private attorney general statute (about which I posted here), and at first, I suspected that the Third District Court of Appeal was trying to tee up...
View ArticleAttorney Fees in a $44 Case?
What do you suppose the high end of “reasonable” is for attorney fees in a successful lawsuit based on about $44 in damages? Supposing that $44 claim settled for $10,500? If you said attorney fees of...
View ArticleSpecial Verdicts vs. Special Verdict Forms
Where a special verdict is hopelessly ambiguous as to whether it awards duplicative damages, the rule is that the trial court should ask the jury to clarify the verdict. But what if the jury is...
View ArticleNew Trial Motions after Summary Judgment
Can you move for a new trial when your case was disposed of by summary judgment? This question undoubtedly causes some degree of cognitive dissonance in many lawyers: a new trial when there was no...
View ArticleOrder or Judgment? It can make a big difference!
More wrangling over what triggers a deadline to appeal. Several weeks ago, I reported on Adaimy v. Ruhl, case no. B193745 (2d Dist. Feb. 28, 2008), in which the court of appeal held that serving just...
View ArticleAppellate Surprises
Some points about appellate practice — even well-settled points — can come as surprises to those not well versed in it. Doe v. United Airlines, case no. B192865 (2d Dist. Mar. 20, 2008) consolidates...
View ArticleWhat Happens to the Trial Lawyer’s Contingency Fee when an Appeal is Taken?
The Texas Appellate Law Blog has done all appellate lawyers and contingency fee trial lawyers a favor with a post urging trial lawyers to include in their contingent fee agreements a provision...
View ArticleAttorney Fee Program Coming Up in Los Angeles
One of the organizers of an upcoming attorney fee CLE program in Los Angeles was lucky enough to reach me by phone this morning before I was too embroiled in my work, and asked if I would be kind...
View ArticleWho Knows Why Some Parties Appeal?
Sometimes a decision just makes no sense, at least to someone looking at it from the outside. Such is the case with Profit Concepts Management, Inc. v. Griffith, case no. G039077 (4th Dist. May 5,...
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Remember, Don’t Be Shy
I told you last October not to be shy when you move to recover attorney fees. Steele v. Youthful Offender Parole Board, case no. C053553 (3d Dist. May 15, 2008) is the mos recent case in point....
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Blogroll Addition: California Attorney’s Fees
Regular readers know I am fond of covering attorney’s fee cases. Now there’s a blog about nothing but California attorney’s fees, and it’s called, oddly enough, California Attorney’s Fees. Started...
View ArticleAppeal That Fee Award
I don’t usually review unpublished decisions for material for this blog.. But unpublished decisions, even if they don’t create new law, can have some interesting points. (Just ask Bisnar | Chase.)...
View ArticleCalifornia Attorney Fee Recovery Preempted by ADA – and a Note on Missed Issues
It’s quite common for plaintiffs to sue under similar state and federal provisions. The disabled plaintiffs who sued under both the federal Americans with Disabilities Act and the California Disabled...
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Lawyers Must Eat — Getting Your Attorney Fees on Appeal
You’d be hard pressed to find a better overview of federal appellate review of attorney fee awards than Moreno v. City of Sacramento, case no. 06-15021 (9th Cir. .July 28, 2008). Judge Kozinski’s...
View ArticleA Judgment that Nobody Noticed Sinks an Appeal
How can the parties and the court all miss the fact that the court entered a judgment? Well, when the document that operates as such isn’t labeled “judgment,” I guess one can occasionally slip by . ....
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The Judgment, the Whole Judgment, and Nothing But the Judgment
Sometimes, a judgment is a mixed bag. That’s how all the parties must have viewed the judgment in Satchmed Plaza Owners Assn. v. UWMC Hospital Corp., case no. G038119 (4th Dist. Oct. 23, 2008). The...
View ArticleThe “Poof” Principle
I don’t know if they coined the phrase — kudos to whoever did — but “the ‘poof principle” is the phrase the guys at California Attorney Fees use to sum up one aspect of Sanai v. Saltz, case nos....
View ArticleAttorney fee review standard isn’t always abuse of discretion
Appealing from an attorney fee award is usually a tough slog. Unless you are arguing a pure issue of law, such as whether any attorney fee-shifting statute applies to the case at all, the Court of...
View ArticleDon’t lightly assume that you’ve extended your time to appeal with a...
The parties in your case have stipulated to have their case tried before a temporary judge (pursuant to Cal. Const., art. VI, § 21) and filed all trial-related papers (trial briefs, closing briefs, and...
View ArticleEgregious attorney misconduct at trial leads to reversal on appeal
When I was a young lawyer, a mentor told me to practice as if the rules will always be strictly enforced against me and my client, yet never enforced against the other side. I always took that as a bit...
View ArticleThe deadline for filing the memorandum and affidavits in support of a motion...
Some parties try to make jurisdictional issues out of non-jurisdictional ones. You can hardly blame them, given the fatal nature of jurisdictional defects. One recent attempt — but ultimately an...
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Overcoming the abuse of discretion standard on appeal of an attorney fee...
Respondents use the “abuse of discretion” standard for all it’s worth when defending against appeals, and they should. Often, it’s one heck of a shield. But there are limits to relying on the this...
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“Close” counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, but not when it comes to...
Annie & John via Compfight For purposes of a new trial motion, evidence is considered “newly discovered” if the party seeking the new trial “could not, with reasonable diligence, have discovered...
View ArticleThe Doctrine of Implied Findings is Serious Business
Under the doctrine of implied findings, the Court of Appeal will presume that the trial court made all findings necessary to support the judgment. The only way for the appellant to avoid that...
View ArticleUnitherm Precludes Plain Error Review, Too
Watch rule 50 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure! In Unitherm Food Systems, Inc. v. Swift-Eckrich, Inc. (2006) 546 U.S. 394, the Supreme Court held that a party who fails to renew a Rule 50(a)...
View ArticleRaiders Lose on Independent Review of Order Granting New Trial
Congratulations! The court has granted your motion for a new trial! Now, just pray the trial judge doesn’t screw it up. Yesterday’s Supreme Court opinion in The Oakland Raiders v. National Football...
View ArticleOf Walnut Trees and Attorney Fees
Two interesting and “bloggable” issues are raised and decided by the Third District Court of Appeal in Brittalia Ventures v. Stuke Nursery Co., Inc., case no. C0478374 (July 10, 2007). One regards the...
View ArticleThird Party Beneficiary to Contract May Invoke Attorney Fee Provision
A few days ago, in my post “Of Walnut Trees and Attorney Fees,” I took issue with the Third District Court of Appeal’s holding that a party suing on a contract that it alleges does not include an...
View ArticleAttorney Fees in Public Interest Case
I added Anthony “Tom” Caso’s “The Opening Brief” to my “Appellate Blogs” blogroll a few weeks ago. Tom is a Sacramento appellate attorney and new appellate blogger. (By the way, Tom, welcome to the...
View ArticleThe Addition of Fees and Costs to a Judgment Does Not Restart The Clock on...
Torres v. City of San Diego, case no. D049111 (4th Dist. July 25, 2007, ordered published August 17, 2007), presents some curiously unique facts. The City of San Diego approved a resolution for the...
View ArticleNinth Circuit: Anticipated Attorney Fees on Appeal Can be Considered in...
In Azizian v. Wilkinson, case no. 05-15847 (August 23, 2007), the Ninth Circuit faced, for the first time, an issue on which other circuits have split: “whether, or under what circumstances, appellate...
View ArticleThe Pro Bono Road to Riches!
Don’t be shy about asking for attorneys fees. Don’t be shy to ask for more than 100 times the suggested schedule in the local rules. Don’t be shy to ask for an amount that far exceeds the amount of...
View Article“Big Law” Comes to a Small Town
Last week’s attorney fee case of Nichols v. City of Taft, case no. F051147 (5th Dist. Oct. 2, 2007), has been written about by several blogs — Legal Pad, The Opening Brief, and California Appellate...
View Article$11,000 Per Hour Attorney Fee Request
Since attorney fee issues have been highlighted here lately, I thought some of you might be interested in a fee request based on an $11,000 hourly rate. You can read all about it at WSJ.com Law Blog,...
View ArticleImportant Update re Pro Bono Attorney Fees
I’ve addded a very important update to my post entitled The Pro Bono Road to Riches! The update clarifies that the court’s discussion in Cruz v. Ayromloo, case no. B190959 (2d Dist. Oct. 3, 2007)...
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