By Bryan Harrison

Tenant vs. landlord disputes, especially in rent controlled districts, have apparently blossomed into a plaintiff lawyer’s cash cow. While tenants in such cases rarely come away with very much reward, their attorneys have developed the ability to often score six-figure verdicts in attorney’s fees. This was the primary message from February East Bay Claims guest speaker Kurt Bridgman.

A senior associate with the San Francisco law offices of Low, Ball & Lynch, Bridgman has defended a good many of these cases. Together with firm partner, Guy Stilson, Mr. Bridgman has written a paper on the subject, entitled “Minimizing and Avoiding Exposure to Attorney Fee Awards in Landlor-Tenant Litigation”. He brought copies enough for most of the folks at the meeeting.

Having established a "standard" of billing, in some instances as much as $500/hour, these lawyers are getting it in the courts. The only saving grace at all is that their claimed hours billed are being cut. Still, Bridgman stated that he's seen cases where the lawyer is awarded well over $100,000, while their client is lucky to get much of anything.

For a copy of his co-authored report, contact Kurt Bridgman, at: www.LowBall.com.

EBCA President, Bob Tucknott, welcomed the crowd, and introduced guest speaker, Kurt Bridgman.

Ryon Hayward takes over for Ben Alexander, with ServiceMaster.

EBCA Vice President, Karen Cowan, at the February meeting.