Woosley v. State of California CA2/5
In this appeal, we again take up issues presented by litigation that has persevered for nearly 40 years. The underlying merits of the suit were resolved more than a dozen years ago, and the parties’ disputes since then have turned to attorney fees. In 2007, the trial court awarded approximately $23 million in fees to plaintiffs’ attorneys—the Gansinger Firm, the Busetti Firm, and Jones, Bell, Abbott, Fleming & Fitzgerald L.L.P. (Jones Bell)—as well as class plaintiff Patrick G. Woosley (Woosley), who is also an attorney. A prior panel of this division reversed the fee award after concluding the trial court made certain errors, including failing to consider plaintiffs’ lack of success in the underlying suit. The case was assigned to a new judge, who held an evidentiary hearing on the issues we directed the court to address and independently examined the attorney billing records to identify unsuccessful and unnecessary work.
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