In Carpenter & Zuckerman v. Cohen, 2011 DJDAR 6665 (2011), the Second District California Court of Appeal decided an interesting attorney fee case. The fee dispute arose out of litigation between two law firms.

After being sued, one firm, Personal Injury Solutions Inc. (Personal Injury), filed a cross-complaint against another law firm named Carpenter & Zuckerman LLC (Carpenter). The cross-complaint alleged causes of action for interference with economic advantage and defamation. The trial court granted Carpenter’s special motion to strike and awarded the firm its reasonable attorney fees. Personal Injury appealed from the order and the trial court’s award of attorney fees as costs.

The appeal filed by Personal Injury was ruled to be untimely, and the award of fees, but not the amount, was affirmed, and the matter was remanded for further proceedings at the trial court level.