Opinion ID: 2524968
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Ensure fairness

Text: Vesting ownership of unassigned section 12965 fees in counsel rather than the prevailing litigant (to the extent fees are not otherwise paid) is fairer than the alternative to the litigants who must pay such fees. Statutory attorney fees are not of course intended to compensate the prevailing party for damages suffered. (See Elton v. Anheuser-Busch Beverage Group, Inc. (1996) 50 Cal.App.4th 1301, 1308, 58 Cal.Rptr.2d 303.) Nor by definition do they compensate the party for litigation costs when no agreement requiring attorney compensation exists and no fees have been paid. Paying the proceeds of a section 12965 award to the party rather than to counsel in such circumstances would, from the perspective of those paying them, transform the award, without legislative authorization, into a kind of punitive damages.