State bill to reduce lawyer fees fails

Paul Clinton

CORONA DEL MAR -- Even with the help of a retired Newport Beach

attorney, Assemblyman John Campbell (R-Irvine) wasn’t able to limit fees

lawyers can receive in class-action suits.

The legislation, known as Assembly Bill 456, died in committee

Wednesday. The bill would have imposed a fee cap of either $1,000 per

hour or 15% of the final settlement, whichever amount is less.

“We didn’t get it because the trial lawyers are a very strong lobby,

and they didn’t want it,” a somewhat dejected Campbell said Wednesday. “A

thousand an hour is clearly not enough.”

Campbell’s bill was defeated by a 5-2 vote in the Assembly’s Judiciary

Committee on Wednesday. Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa

Barbara) said the bill was “very poor policy” because it would have

scared lawyers away from cases that right a social wrong.

“Why would you stick your neck out unless there was a potential

positive impact,” Jackson said. “We need people to represent people who

can’t afford counsel.”

Campbell had enlisted retired personal-injury lawyer Tim Cook, who

lives in Corona del Mar, to help him craft the bill. Both men, who are

friends, were spurred into action by a series of class-action suits where

attorneys reaped staggering awards for their work.

The latest case, and touchstone for the bill, came when attorneys from

the San Diego law firm Milberg, Weiss, Berhad, Hynes & Lerach charged the

state a whopping $88.5 million -- or $8,800 per hour -- in the smog

refund case.

“A guy getting $8,800 an hour is insane,” Cook said from his home

office in Corona del Mar. “The public perceives lawyers as greedy. But

when lawyers do something like asking for $8,800 an hour, that perception

is justified.”

Cook and Campbell weren’t the only ones appalled by the case.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Joe Gray tossed out the award April 17.

State Controller Kathleen Connell had refused to write the firm a check.

The firm has appealed Gray’s ruling.

Campbell also cited the award anti-tobacco lawyers received in their

public-health suit against cigarette manufacturers. On March 6, the

National Tobacco Fee Arbitration Panel awarded attorneys $637.5 million,

a 5% slice of the total award to California counties and cities. Newport

Beach-based Calcagnie & Robinson shared that award with a handful of

other firms.

However, Campbell’s bill that failed Wednesday would have applied only

to suits against governmental agencies and nonprofit groups. California

taxpayers, who received $321 million in refunds on the smog-impact fee

case, would shoulder the cost of the awards in that case.

Assemblyman Tom Harman (R-Huntington Beach), also an attorney, joined

four Democrats in opposing Campbell’s bill.

The Western Center on Law and Poverty also opposed Campbell’s bill,

notifying the assemblyman in a March 21 letter.

Public interest lawsuits -- including civil rights and discrimination

cases -- would have suffered had Campbell’s bill become law, said group

attorney Casey McKeever. Lawyers would be less likely to take them on,

McKeever said.

“Fifteen percent of zero is zero,” McKeever said. “It may take a lot

of time and energy to enforce some rights. It may not be a

multimillion-dollar recovery.”

Campbell said he would contemplate reintroducing an amended version of

the bill next year.