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16 U.S.F. L. Rev. 411 (1981-1982)
Fine Tuning California's Mandatory Attorney Fee Arbitration Statute

handle is hein.journals/usflr16 and id is 421 raw text is: ARTICLES Fine Tuning California's Mandatory Attorney Fee Arbitration Statute By JAMES P. HARGARTEN Partner, Thelen, Marrin, Johnson & Bridges, San Francisco; Director, Bar Association of San Francisco; Chairman, Committee on Arbitration of Fee Disputes; B.A., Marquette University, 1965; J.D., University of Wisconsin, 1968; Member, California Bar.. SUSAN A. ARDISSON* Introduction THE CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE enacted a mandatory attor- ney fee arbitration statute in 1978 to provide for compulsory arbitration of fee disputes between California attorneys and cli- ents.1 The intent of the legislation was to provide an effective, ex- peditious, simple, low cost forum in which an attorney and a client may resolve a dispute over legal fees.' Generally, California attor- * Class of 1983; Administrator of the Committee of Arbitration of Fee Disputes of the Bar Association of San Francisco, 1978 to 1982. 1. CAL. Bus. & PROF. CODE §§ 6200-6206 (West Supp. 1981). Mandatory arbitration applies to disputes over fees for legal services in dispute which were rendered after January 1, 1979. See id. § 6205. The text of the statute is set out in the Appendix. 2. See REPORT OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON RESOLUTION OF FEE DisPUTES, STATE BAR OF CALIFORNIA (Apr. 29, 1976) [on file at the U.S.F. L. Rev.]; Fernandez, The Pending Pro- posal for Mandatory Fee Arbitration, 52 CAL. ST. B.J. 520, 521 (1977).