When a plaintiff succeeds on a claim under the Fair Employment Housing Act (FEHA) , the court in its discretion may award the plaintiff attorneys fees and expert costs. (Government Code § 12965(b)). The question that was put to the Court in Anthony v. City of Los Angeles (2008) ___ Cal.App.4th ___ (B202457) was: Must the plaintiff claim expert costs within 15 days of the entry of judgment? There, the Court said no.
In Anthony, the Court held that because these costs are discretionary, it make no sense for the plaintiff to claim them as part of its standard costs memorandum under California Rules of Court, rule 3.1700, which makes the granting of certain trial costs obligatory.
Instead, the Court held that expert costs should be claimed at the same time attorneys’ fees are claimed. That way, the Court can address both of these discretionary ideas at the same time. Thus, the Court in Anthony held that a claim of expert costs made 25 days after the entry of judgment, was timely.
The second issue discussed in Anthony was the defendant’s claim that a court only had discretion to award expert costs for experts the court itself appointed, not for experts the plaintiff retained on his own. The Court quickly dispatched this argument relying on Government Code § 12965(b) and Davis v. KGO-T.V., Inc. (1998) 17 Cal.4th 436, for the position that the Court does in fact have discretion to award expert costs for experts not appointed by the Court.
--Michael Sachs
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