BILL NUMBER: AB 1264	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Audra Strickland

                        FEBRUARY 27, 2009

   An act to amend Section 1021 of the Code of Civil Procedure,
relating to attorney's fees.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 1264, as introduced, Audra Strickland. Attorney's fees:
objectors.
   Under existing law, parties to actions or proceedings are entitled
to their costs, as specified. Except to the extent attorney's fees
are specifically provided for by statute, the measure and mode of
compensation of attorneys and counselors at law is left to the
agreement, express or implied, of the parties.
   This bill would require that any award of attorney's fees paid in
settlement to a professional objector or an objector's counsel shall
be approved by the court prior to payment.
   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.  The Legislature finds and declares that professional
objectors, who seek to enter a class action case after a settlement
is announced, object to the settlement, and intervene as counsel on
behalf of a class member, and then threaten to disrupt the settlement
unless the objector is compensated, delay and unnecessarily
complicate class action proceedings by requiring court review of
purported issues with no merit.
  SEC. 2.  Section 1021 of the Code of Civil Procedure is amended to
read:
   1021.   (a)    Except as attorney's fees are
specifically provided for by statute, the measure and mode of
compensation of attorneys and counselors at law is left to the
agreement, express or implied, of the parties; but parties to actions
or proceedings are entitled to their costs, as  hereinafter
 provided  in this chapter  . 
   (b) Any award of attorney's fees paid in settlement in a class
action to a professional objector or an objector's counsel shall be
approved by the court prior to payment.  
   (c) For purposes of this section, a "professional objector" is an
attorney who challenges attorney's fees and other aspects of class
action settlements without merit.