Attorney Fees

Manville Corp. has agreed to make additional payments of as much as $520 million over seven years to the trust set up to benefit asbestos victims. A comprehensive settlement disclosed Monday also will revamp the way claims are paid, giving priority to the most gravely ill. The plan is meant to settle about 150,000 pending claims by people injured by Manville-produced asbestos.

Even if discrimination plays a role in a worker's firing, an employer will not be liable for back pay or other compensation if the employee would have been fired anyway for poor performance, the California Supreme Court decided Thursday. The 6-0 ruling, with one justice recused, is likely to change the way most discrimination cases are handled in California, lawyers in the case said. In the past, employees could receive compensation, including back pay and damages, and win reinstatement if they could prove that discrimination was "a motivating factor" in a firing.

Recently my lawyer told me he would not charge me for a service rendered, but then billed me $67.50 for our conversation. I wish this were a joke, Harvey Saferstein. B. ROCK Huntington Beach

Paul Ceglia, the New York man who has become famous for suing Facebook, must reimburse Facebook for nearly $90,000 in attorney fees, a judge ruled Thursday. U.S. Magistrate Leslie Foschio ordered Ceglia to pay Facebook for depositions canceled at the last minute. Ceglia must also reimburse nearly $7,000 to Facebook's experts for travel and lodging expenses. Ceglia's attorney, Dean Boland, who asked to withdraw from the case could not be immediately reached for comment. A Facebook spokesman declined to comment.

Oxnard will appeal a judge's ruling that the city pay about $256,000 in attorney fees for a lawsuit that argued Oxnard was failing to attract sufficient affordable-housing projects to the city. The City Council voted 5 to 0 Tuesday to appeal the February ruling by Ventura Superior Court Judge Joseph D. Hadden that said the city must pay about $256,000 total to various attorneys and legal agencies that brought the suit.

Freedom Newspapers Inc.'s majority shareholders decided Tuesday to drop their lawsuit for attorney fees and costs against disgruntled family member Harry H. Hoiles. But the action is little more than a housecleaning matter. Because Hoiles lost his long-fought bid for a court order dissolving the Irvine-based media chain last week, he already is liable to pay the majority's court costs, estimated at $100,000 to $300,000.

Attorneys who prevail in lawsuits brought in the public interest are entitled to compensation for their work, the California Supreme Court ruled in a unanimous decision Thursday. Both liberal and conservative lawyers had urged the state high court to award fees to three law firms whose attorneys spent years trying to get the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to require private employers of prison labor to pay wages comparable to non-inmate workers' wages.

General Dynamics Corp. lost its bid to collect $25 million in attorneys' fees from the U.S. government over a bungled criminal investigation. The Falls Church, Va.-based defense contractor had won the fees in federal court after a judge found that a Defense Department auditor was negligent in finding that General Dynamics had defrauded the government of $8 million. But a Pasadena panel of the U.S.

In a victory for civil rights lawyers, the Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a civil rights plaintiff who wins on "any significant issue" is entitled to have some of his attorney's fees paid by the government. The unanimous ruling may prove important because it permits civil rights lawyers to be paid for often complex and long-running litigation in which they win on some points and lose on others.

The Los Angeles City Council on Friday agreed to pay more than $288,000 in court-ordered attorneys' fees in the case of a fired officer whose rights were violated by the Los Angeles Police Department. The fees were not connected to a $1.5-million award granted to former Sgt. Roger M. Gibson by a federal court jury in 1988, which is being appealed by the city attorney's office, Deputy City Atty. S. David Hotchkiss said.

A lawsuit filed in 2010 by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange and Santa Ana Mater Dei against the CIF Southern Section lives on, and attorney fees for the CIF have exceeded $109,000, CIF Executive Director Roger Blake said Monday. A status conference is scheduled for Nov. 5 in Orange County Superior Court. No trial date has been scheduled after a previous date last February was vacated. The status conference will come just days after a scheduled Oct. 29 vote at the CIF State Federated Council, where Mater Dei and the Trinity League are supporting a proposal that would remove the wording "athletically motivated transfer" from all CIF rules.

In 2010, "Girls Gone Wild" founder Joe Francis first accused casino mogul Steve Wynn of threatening to kill him and bury him in the desert. That accusation, which Francis repeated publicly at least twice more, could end up costing him $40 million. A Los Angeles jury this week awarded Wynn that amount in his slander suit against Francis, an outcome Wynn lauded as a strike against an "unbelievably reckless human being. " "Thank God for the justice system that finally sent a message: If you think you're taking a cheap shot, it may be a lot more expensive than you had imagined," Wynn said Tuesday in a statement.

Question: My homeowners association has contracted with the same attorney firm on retainer for more than 25 years. The attorney also receives 40% of any money collected from dues and fines, and the association is demanding more in settlements to recoup its attorney expenses. In response to questions of this practice at a board meeting, the president said that "we have no choice in this economy due to the high number of delinquencies but to use the attorney's services, and all HOAs are doing this now. " Many of my longtime neighbors are walking away from their homes because they can't meet these higher re-payment demands by the board.

WASHINGTON - Some consumers might be in for a surprise if they take their banks to court over checking or credit card disputes: A provision in account agreements says even if you win, you lose. Checking account disclosures at four large banks and one large credit union make the customer liable for the bank's losses, costs or expenses - including attorney fees - from any dispute over the account, regardless of who wins. "If you win the lawsuit, you shouldn't have to pay the other side's costs and fees.

Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas has spent three years defending an indefensible tactic that denies individuals the right to due process before they are named in a gang injunction. A federal judge has ruled it unconstitutional, but Rackauckas has now appealed that decision. He should abandon this costly and misguided legal battle that is little more than an attempt to bend the rules. Injunctions are powerful tools that can help law enforcement combat gangs. The theory is that by placing restrictions on the conduct of gang members - such as imposing curfews on them or limiting where they can congregate - the injunction will undercut a gang's ability to control the streets and commit crimes.

A jury awarded $6 million this week to a man who said Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies forced him from his car after a routine traffic stop, beat him, kneed him in the face and broke his eye socket. The jury's award comes after the district attorney dismissed criminal charges against Deon Dirks, 33, for allegedly assaulting the deputies. Dirks, a school bus driver from South Los Angeles, had just left an auto parts store in Compton in November 2007 when he was pulled over for speeding.

A Superior Court judge ordered Orange County to pay $85,000 in attorney fees in a civil case brought by an anti-airport coalition. The group had won a settlement in January from the county over its hiring of a Carlsbad attorney to do pro-airport legal work. Attorney Michael Gatzke's work had been challenged by the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, a coalition of nine South County cities opposed to plans for a commercial airport at the closed Marine base.

A Los Angeles Federal Court judge this week doubled the fees of two attorneys who won a civil rights lawsuit against the Long Beach Police Department, saying that competent lawyers should be compensated for taking on such risky cases. U.S. District Judge Mariana R. Pfaelzer granted attorneys Stephen and Marion R. Yagman $374,675 because such compensation is necessary to "attract competent counsel to represent plaintiffs in civil rights/police misconduct actions," according to court documents.

Facebook Inc. was awarded $75,776 in legal fees from a New York man who claims he's entitled to half of Mark Zuckerberg's multibillion-dollar stake in the social network. In a decision Tuesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Leslie G. Foschio in Buffalo, N.Y., ordered Paul Ceglia to pay the fees after ruling that he violated a pretrial discovery order and failed to turn over email account information. The fee comes on top of an earlier $5,000 fine by the judge. Last month, Foschio said Ceglia must reimburse Facebook for legal fees it incurred in trying to get him to comply with a court order in the partnership dispute.

Frank and Jamie McCourt expect to settle their divorce — and with it the question of who owns the Dodgers — in a trial during the 2012 baseball season. The trial is expected to start next spring or summer and last 30 to 45 days, a timetable set forth by attorneys on both sides after a hearing Wednesday at Los Angeles Superior Court. Frank McCourt claims sole ownership of the Dodgers and ex-wife Jamie claims half-ownership. It is unclear when the Dodgers will emerge from federal bankruptcy protection.