Judge: Joseph Lipner, Case: 21STCV32268, Date: 2025-03-06 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 21STCV32268    Hearing Date: March 6, 2025    Dept: 72

SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA

COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES

DEPARTMENT 72

TENTATIVE RULING

Plaintiffs Jorge Pina Alonso and Ivonne Maltos (collectively, “Plaintiffs”) move for an award of attorney’s fees, costs, and expenses against Defendant Kia Motors America (“Defendant”) in the total amount of $265,117.04, inclusive of costs.  The request consists of a lodestar of $156,148.85 and a multiplier of 1.5 that brings this amount to $234,223.28, and costs of $30,893.76.

The Court CONTINUES this hearing to March 27, 2025 at 8:30 a.m. and orders Plaintiff no later than March 18, 2025 file with the Court billing records which separate each timekeeper and their respective billing records.  The records for each timekeeper shall include all the same information that is in the billing records previously submitted by Plaintiff, including the date, description of work, hours billed, and dollar amount for that task.  The billing records shall also include a sum of all hours and dollar amounts for each timekeeper.

The Court does not expect to include costs in the ruling on this motion.  Defendant has separately moved to tax Plaintiffs’ costs. The Court defers this issue until the motion to tax costs is fully briefed.  The Court has scheduled the hearings on both motions for the same day.