California Court of Appeal

In an action for expert witness fees and prejudgment interest under Code Civ. Proc. section 998, for purposes of determining whether a defendant failed to obtain a more favorable judgment, any negotiated rate differential included in a jury's verdict should be subtracted from the judgment or award before it is compared to the offer to compromise "for the simple reason that the injured plaintiff did not suffer any economic loss in that amount." The ruling below is affirmed where the trial court correctly reduced the jury verdict by the negotiated rate differential before making the section 998 comparison and concluding the judgment obtained by the defendants was more favorable than the offer to compromise for $1 million.

Appellate Information

• Decided 05/15/2015
• Published 05/15/2015

Judges

• FRANSON

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel