Bravo Ex Rel. Gonzales v. City of Santa Maria

I fully concur in the majority opinion. I write separately, however, to explain why I would uphold the award in this case whether or not we considered the $360,000 settlement with the Santa Barbara defendants. In short, I would uphold the fee award even if the only monetary benefit to plaintiffs was the $5,000 verdict. I would do so for two reasons: (1) although the verdict was low in comparison to the fees sought by the attorneys, this litigation achieved significant non-monetary benefits for society, and (2) the entire context of the case, including the fact that plaintiffs had to overcome…