California Assembly Bill AB940 Introduced / Bill

 BILL NUMBER: AB 940INTRODUCED BILL TEXT INTRODUCED BY Committee on Judiciary (Feuer (Chair), Brownley, Evans, Jones, Krekorian, Lieu, and Monning) FEBRUARY 26, 2009 An act to amend Section 1021.5 of the Code of Civil Procedure, relating to attorney's fees. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 940, as introduced, Committee on Judiciary. Civil litigation: attorney's fees: public interest. Existing law allows a court, upon motion, to award attorney's fees to a successful party against one or more opposing parties in any action that has resulted in the enforcement of an important right affecting the public interest, if certain conditions are met. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to these provisions. Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no. State-mandated local program: no. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. Section 1021.5 of the Code of Civil Procedure is amended to read: 1021.5. Upon motion, a court may award  attorneys'   attorney's  fees to a successful party against one or more opposing parties in any action  which   that  has resulted in the enforcement of an important right affecting the public interest if: (a) a significant benefit, whether pecuniary or nonpecuniary, has been conferred on the general public or a large class of persons, (b) the necessity and financial burden of private enforcement, or of enforcement by one public entity against another public entity, are such as to make the award appropriate, and (c)  such   those  fees should not in the interest of justice be paid out of the recovery, if any. With respect to actions involving public entities, this section applies to allowances against, but not in favor of, public entities, and no claim shall be required to be filed  therefor,   in such an action,  unless one or more successful parties and one or more opposing parties are public entities, in which case no claim shall be required to be filed therefor under Part 3 (commencing with Section 900) of Division 3.6 of Title 1 of the Government Code.  Attorneys'   Attorney's  fees awarded to a public entity pursuant to this section shall not be increased or decreased by a multiplier based upon extrinsic circumstances, as discussed in Serrano v. Priest, 20 Cal. 3d 25, 49.