Recent Case

Appellate Win- Etcheson v. FCA US, LLC (published)

On December 27, 2018, the Court of Appeal (Fourth District- San Diego) decided to publish this decision in which we reversed the trial court’s attorneys’ fees ruling. The trial court had reduced plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fees from $89,445 all the way down to $2,636 in a lemon lawsuit that settled just before trial. According to the trial court, the plaintiff should have negotiated more with the vehicle manufacturer and should have settled earlier, and for those reasons only awarded $2,636 in attorneys’ fees. The trial court did not consider the fact that plaintiffs recovered more than double what FCA had initially offered them, including a civil penalty, and also ignored that all of FCA’s offers were invalid. The Court of Appeal reversed the decision, sent the case back to the trial court for reconsideration, and published the opinion to be used as precedent in other cases.