SAN DIEGO - A San Diego Superior Court judge has awarded lemon law attorney Michael E Lindsey $684,250 on a mere $1 judgment he secured for a client before her at bench trial. He had requested close to $1 million.
Judge Katherine Bacal entered the fee order last month over the objections of defendant in Duff v. Jaguar Land Rover North America, which argued that the plaintiff was not the prevailing party because Duff did not achieve his "litigation objectives."
But Bacal held that even though Duff did not prove any damages, he proved a breach under the state's lemon law, the Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act.
"[U]nder the terms of the Act, once plaintiff proved a breach, he was the prevailing party," Bacal wrote.
Fees were calculated using the lodestar method, a formula of reasonable hours spent on litigation and a reasonable hourly rate.
Lindsey had asked for $575 per hour, but Bacal upped the rate to $650.
He claimed to have spent 1,505 hours litigating the case, but Bacal found that 315 of those hours were not reasonably incurred. She calculated 1,190 hours for the lodestar figure.
Bacal denied Lindsey's motion for $22,884.63 in costs.
Jaguar is represented by Jacqueline Bruce-Chinery of Lehrman Law Group in Los Angeles.