California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from Kurtz v. Wizbowski, F053776 (Cal. App. 6/30/2008), F053776 (Cal. App. 2008):
Defendant also says "[t]he court failed to review the supporting documents, including the basis for challenges made and failed to determine whether the attorney fees requested were reasonable in need and amount," but does not support this claim with any citation to the record. The court's order stated that defendant's objections were without merit. We assume the court made findings necessary to support its ruling. (Walling v. Kimball, supra, 17 Cal.2d at p. 373.)
Defendant lists six billing items as examples of the fees she challenged in the trial court; she claims the court should have issued a specific explanation of why it did not agree with her claims about these and other items. Her point about some of these items appears to be that counsel claimed too much time for a particular task. She says the court should have found that some of the other items were related only to the arbitration and were not part of the judicial proceedings. The court's finding was this: "Counsel for plaintiffs has differentiated between those fees his clients incurred in the arbitration versus those fees incurred in connection with judicial proceedings. The court finds the fees to be reasonable and necessary, and related to the judicial proceedings." Defendant did not request any further statement of findings. In the absence of this request, the court was not required to make further findings. (Dunk v. Ford Motor Co. (1996) 48 Cal.App.4th 1794, 1807.)
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