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"Kleiner's lawyers say that Pao can't use the recent California Supreme Court ruling to invalidate Kleiner's request for more than $800,000 in expert witness fe

"Kleiner's lawyers say that Pao can't use the recent California Supreme Court ruling to invalidate Kleiner's request for more than $800,000 in expert witness fees because Pao “failed to accept a reasonable settlement offer” before the lawsuit went to trial." So... Are they claiming that not accepting a settlement is the same as malicious intent?

jeffmould 11y ago
IANAL, but essentially in a civil case if the plaintiff is offered a settlement by the defendant and the plaintiff turns down said settlement and later on the plaintiff either loses the case or ends up winning or settling for less than the first offer the plaintiff gives up the ability to have the defendant pay legal fees in the case. Essentially it works like this. If I sue you for $100000, and you offer a settlement for $50,000 but I refuse, we go to court and I am only awarded $40,000 I would owe you all your legal fees from the time you offered me the initial settlement. There is a legal term for it, but there again, IANAL so I can't remember it.
- guan 11y ago
  As I understand it, it’s not about legal costs in the sense of the fees that Kleiner’s lawyers were paid, but rather costs for expert witnesses and other non-lawyer costs. Specifically, $864,680 in expert witness fees, $59,000 in deposition costs, and $40,000 in other costs. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/04/kleiner-perkins-asks-ellen-pao-for-nearly-1-million-in-costs-after-trial/ http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/04/kleiner-perkins-a... It’s not impossible to recover your lawyers’ fees too, but it is quite hard in the American system and you would have to show malicious intent, and there’s no similar mechanism where you make a settlement offer and can then recover based on that.
  - jeffmould 11y ago
    You are right, it is not the lawyers fees, but the costs associated with the case, like you said the expert witnesses, copying documents, court fees, etc... that are owed.

jeffmould 11y ago

IANAL, but essentially in a civil case if the plaintiff is offered a settlement by the defendant and the plaintiff turns down said settlement and later on the plaintiff either loses the case or ends up winning or settling for less than the first offer the plaintiff gives up the ability to have the defendant pay legal fees in the case. Essentially it works like this. If I sue you for $100000, and you offer a settlement for $50,000 but I refuse, we go to court and I am only awarded $40,000 I would owe you all your legal fees from the time you offered me the initial settlement. There is a legal term for it, but there again, IANAL so I can't remember it.

guan 11y ago
As I understand it, it’s not about legal costs in the sense of the fees that Kleiner’s lawyers were paid, but rather costs for expert witnesses and other non-lawyer costs. Specifically, $864,680 in expert witness fees, $59,000 in deposition costs, and $40,000 in other costs. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/04/kleiner-perkins-asks-ellen-pao-for-nearly-1-million-in-costs-after-trial/ http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/04/kleiner-perkins-a... It’s not impossible to recover your lawyers’ fees too, but it is quite hard in the American system and you would have to show malicious intent, and there’s no similar mechanism where you make a settlement offer and can then recover based on that.
- jeffmould 11y ago
  You are right, it is not the lawyers fees, but the costs associated with the case, like you said the expert witnesses, copying documents, court fees, etc... that are owed.