Judge: Jon R. Takasugi, Case: 23STCV02444, Date: 2024-01-31 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 23STCV02444    Hearing Date: January 31, 2024    Dept: 17

Superior Court of California

County of Los Angeles

DEPARTMENT 17

TENTATIVE RULING

Plaintiff is awarded $7,520.00 in reasonable attorney fees.

Given that Plaintiffs’ motion did not include a verified memorandum of cost, the Court does not consider the cost award at this time. 

            On 2/3/2023, Plaintiff Noosha Shaheedy (Plaintiff) filed suit against Ford Motor Company and Santa Monica Ford Lincoln, alleging violations of the Song-Beverly Act and negligent repair.

            Now, Plaintiff moves for attorney fees totally $21,878.00 and costs totaling $1,149.19.

Legal Standard

The party claiming attorneys’ fees must establish entitlement to such fees and the reasonableness of the fees claimed.  (Civic Western Corporation v. Zila Industries, Inc. (1977) 66 Cal.App.3d 1, 16.) “Except as attorney’s fees are specifically provided for by statute, the measure and mode of compensation of attorneys and counselors at law is left to the agreement, express or implied, of the parties[.]” (CCP § 1021.)

“It is well established that the determination of what constitutes reasonable attorney fees is committed to the discretion of the trial court, whose decision cannot be reversed in the absence of an abuse of discretion.”  (Melnyk v. Robledo (1976) 64 Cal.App.3d 618, 623.)  In exercising its discretion, the court should consider a number of factors, including the nature of the litigation, its difficulty, the amount involved, the skill required in handling the matter, the attention given, the success or failure, and the resulting judgment.  (Ibid.)

In determining what constitutes a reasonable compensation for an attorney who has rendered services in connection with a legal proceeding, the court may and should consider the nature of the litigation, its difficulty, the amount involved, the skill required and the skill employed in handling the litigation, the attention given, the success of the attorneys’ efforts, their learning, their age, and their experience in the particular type of work demanded the intricacies and importance of the litigation, the labor and necessity for skilled legal training and ability in trying the cause, and the time consumed. (Stokus v. Marsh (1990) 217 Cal.App.3d 647, 657 (Stokus).)

In determining the proper amount of fees to award, courts use the lodestar method.  The lodestar figure is calculated by multiplying the total number of reasonable hours expended by the reasonable hourly rate.  “Fundamental to its determination … [is] a careful compilation of the time spent and reasonable hourly compensation of each attorney … in the presentation of the case.”  (Serrano v. Priest (1977) 20 Cal.3d 25, 48 (Serrano III).)  A reasonable hourly rate must reflect the skill and experience of the attorney.  (Id. at 49.)  “Prevailing parties are compensated for hours reasonably spent on fee-related issues.  A fee request that appears unreasonably inflated is a special circumstance permitting the trial court to reduce the award or deny one altogether.”  (Serrano v. Unruh (1982) 32 Cal.3d 621, 635 (Serrano IV); see also Weber v. Langholz (1995) 39 Cal.App.4th 1578, 1587 (“The trial court could make its own evaluation of the reasonable worth of the work done in light of the nature of the case, and of the credibility of counsel’s declaration unsubstantiated by time records and billing statements.”)

Reasonable attorney fees should be based on an objective standard of reasonableness, i.e., the market value of services rendered, not on some notion of cost incurred. (PLCM Group, Inc. v. Drexler (2000) 22 Cal.4th 1084, 1090.)  The value of legal services performed in a case is a matter in which the trial court has its own expertise.  (Id. at 1096.)  The trial court may make its own determination of the value of the services contrary to, or without the necessity for, expert testimony.  (Ibid.)  The trial court makes its determination after consideration of a number of factors, including the nature of the litigation, its difficulty, the amount involved, the skill required in its handling, the skill employed, the attention given, the success or failure, and other circumstances in the case.  (Ibid.)

Discussion

Plaintiff seeks attorney fees totally $21,878.00.

Plaintiffs’ counsel claims the following hourly rates for the attorneys who worked on this case:

-         Michael Saeedian: $695/hr

-         Christopher Urner: $525/hr

-         Jorge Acosta: $250/hr (law clerk)

In Morris v. Hyundai Motor Am. (2019) 41 Cal. App. 5th 24, 41, the trial court reduced the rates of Bryan Altman of the Altman Law Group, who has 30-plus years of litigation experience with over 100 jury trials, of which 20-plus were as lead trial counsel in lemon law cases, from $650 to $500 per hour, reduced Steve Mikhov of the Knight Law Group from $500 to $400, and reduced all the associates’ rates that ranged from $450 to $350 to $300 per hour. (Id. at 8-9.) In support of the lower court decision, the court of appeal held that:

[E]ven if Morris established that her attorneys’ rates were generally commensurate with other consumer law attorneys with the same level of experience and skill, Morris ignores that there are a number of factors that the trial court may have taken into consideration in determining that reductions in the attorneys’ hourly rates were warranted. The court reasonably could have reduced the rates based on its finding that the matter was not complex; that it did not go to trial; that the name partners were doing work that could have been done by lower-billing attorneys; and that all the attorneys were doing work that could have been done by paralegals.

            (Id. at pp. 23-24.)

            Similarly, Judge Randolph Hammock of the Los Angeles County Superior Court recently found rates of $350 per hour appropriate for an “experienced” lawyer to take a lemon law case all the way through trial. (See Mikhaeilpoor v. BMW of N. Am., LLC (2020) 48 Cal.App.5th 240, 245-46 [“The court found the requested fee amount “was just not reasonable.”… The court decided that $350 “is a reasonable hourly rate for the services that were done.”].)

            Here, the Court finds the hourly rates to be unreasonable, and, based on case law, reduces the hourly rates for each of plaintiffs’ attorneys to a reasonable blended $400 per hour for all attorneys who litigated this case, consistent with Mikhaeilpoor. This is also informed by the fact that this case did not address novel or difficult questions, and was straightforward and simple.

Hours

            Plaintiff’s counsel claims a total of 42.1 hours. However, as detailed in Defendant’s opposition, the billing records indicate padding and unreasonable billings. For example, counsel claims 1.4 hours related to the business decision of determining whether to represent Plaintiff, and 9.1 hours related to this motion for attorney fees. As noted by Defendant, this means that 25% of the billings here only benefited counsel. (See Opp., 8:23-24.)

Moreover, despite using form documents for discovery, counsel billed 1.7 hours to draft and file the form complaint, (Proudfoot Decl., Exhs. A-B), and 4.0 hours on template discovery requests (Id., Exhs. E-F)

            The Court agrees with Defendant’s contention that 23.3 hours of the total hours claimed were not reasonably incurred. This leaves 18.8 hours reasonably incurred. At an hourly rate of $400/hr, this brings the total attorney fees award to $7,520.00.

            Plaintiff did not file a Verified Memorandum of Costs, and thus the Court has not considered the request for costs.

It is so ordered.

Dated:  January    , 2024

   Hon. Jon R. Takasugi
   Judge of the Superior Court

Parties who intend to submit on this tentative must send an email to the court at smcdept17@lacourt.org by 4 p.m. the day prior as directed by the instructions provided on the court website at www.lacourt.org.  If a party submits on the tentative, the party’s email must include the case number and must identify the party submitting on the tentative.  If all parties to a motion submit, the court will adopt this tentative as the final order.  If the department does not receive an email indicating the parties are submitting on the tentative and there are no appearances at the hearing, the motion may be placed off calendar.  For more information, please contact the court clerk at (213) 633-0517.