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California Civil Procedure, Keyed to Levine, 6th Ed.
Ellis v. Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc.
Citation:
218 Cal. App. 4th 853, 160 Cal. Rptr. 3d 557, 572 U.S. 1138, 134 S. Ct. 2692, 189 L. Ed. 2d 215 (2013)Facts
In February 2005, Lori Sklar, a sole practitioner operating from Minnesota, and Caddell & Chapman, a Texas law firm, filed a class action against Toshiba on behalf of purchasers of laptop computers with defective top covers. After mediation, the parties reached a settlement in November 2005 providing class members with warranty extensions or credits and repair vouchers. Sklar initially declared she would seek over $24.7 million in attorney fees, representing 25 percent of an estimated settlement value of nearly $99 million. Toshiba opposed this request and sought discovery of Sklar’s time records. Sklar produced hard copies and PDF versions of her time records showing she purportedly worked up to 16.75 hours per day, seven days per week, for 22 months. Before producing these records, Sklar had converted her original Word files to Adobe format and deleted the originals using a program called Wipe and Delete, eliminating all metadata. The trial court ordered Sklar to allow Toshiba’s expert to conduct a forensic inspection of her computers on July 22-23, 2008. On July 21, 2008, Sklar refused to allow the inspection to proceed. Throughout the litigation, Sklar failed to cooperate in establishing a protocol for the inspection and made numerous accusations of unethical conduct against opposing counsel, co-counsel, and others. Her final fee petition requested approximately $12 million in fees plus over $900,000 in expenses.
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