Fee arrangements in a Sacramento animal attack case answer to the State Bar rule on unconscionable fees and to two sections of the Business and Professions Code that dictate what the paperwork must say. Where the injured person is a child, a Rule of Court hands the decision to a judge, and the county's own filing tiers sit on top of all of it.
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Six boxes, about thirty seconds. You pick when to be called back, and that is when the phone rings.
Or call (916) 937-0789The schedule the court posts steps up to $370 above $10,000 and $435 once more than $35,000 is at issue.
Government Code section 70617(d) prices this one motion at $500 while an ordinary motion needing a hearing costs $60.
Where hourly or flat-rate work is reasonably expected to cost the client more than this, section 6148 requires the contract in writing.
Sacramento County Animal Care charges this a year in the unincorporated county, against $15 for an altered animal.
These are the ceilings the California rules put on a fee taken out of a recovery, not what any particular firm charges. A fee is set in a written agreement signed with the firm, and a ceiling is a limit rather than a going rate.
| What it covers | What the rule or schedule sets | What that means | Where it says so |
|---|---|---|---|
| The cut taken from a dog bite recovery | Unconscionability standard | Rule 1.5(a) prohibits an unconscionable or illegal fee. Factor (b)(3) asks how the fee compares with the value of the services actually performed. | Cal. R. Prof. Conduct 1.5(a) |
| Contents of a contingency contract | Rate, costs, negotiability | Section 6147(a) requires the rate, how disbursements affect the fee and the recovery, and the plain statement that the rate is negotiable, not fixed by law. | Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code 6147(a) |
| A recovery belonging to a child | The judge sets it | Rule 7.955 makes a court apply a reasonable fee standard, weighing fourteen factors including risk of loss, costs advanced and delay in payment. | Cal. R. Ct. 7.955 |
| Hourly or flat-rate work above $1,000 | Writing, or voidable | Section 6148 requires the basis of compensation and the nature of the services in writing, and a bill within ten days of a client's request. | Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code 6148 |
| Filing tier by amount at issue | $225, $370 or $435 | Reclassifying a limited case as unlimited costs $140 more, a continuance $20, and a change of venue $50 on the schedule the court publishes. | Sacramento Superior Court civil fee schedule |
| Licensing the dog in Sacramento County | $50 or $15, plus $25 late | County Code 8.24.030 requires the license; Animal Care charges $50 a year unaltered, $15 altered, $45 for a qualifying ranch or competition dog. | Sacramento County Animal Care license fees |
California Rule of Professional Conduct 1.5(a) prohibits an agreement for, a charge of, or the collection of an unconscionable or illegal fee. Nothing in the rule names a number. What the rule does instead is list thirteen non-exclusive factors, and factor (b)(3) is the one that carries the most weight in a routine claim: the amount of the fee in proportion to the value of the services performed. Factor (b)(4) looks at the relative sophistication of the two parties to the agreement, factor (b)(2) at whether material facts about the fee were disclosed, and factor (b)(13) at whether the client gave informed consent. Read together they mean a percentage is defensible when the work behind it is real and the client understood the deal.
Business and Professions Code section 6147 requires a contingency agreement to be reduced to writing, with a fully executed duplicate handed to the client at the time it is signed. Subdivision (a)(1) requires the agreed rate to be stated. Subdivision (a)(2) requires a statement of how disbursements and costs incurred in connection with the claim will affect both the fee and the client's recovery. Subdivision (a)(4) requires the contract to state, in terms, that the fee is not set by law but is negotiable. Where a defect exists, subdivision (b) makes the whole agreement voidable at the plaintiff's choice, leaving counsel entitled only to a reasonable fee. That remedy sits with the client, not with the lawyer.
Most people bitten badly enough to bring a claim in this county are children, and that changes the fee analysis entirely. California Rule of Court 7.955(a)(1) covers matters under Code of Civil Procedure section 372 or Probate Code sections 3600 to 3601. Unless the court approved the fee agreement in advance, it must use a reasonable fee standard when approving fees payable from money paid for the benefit of a minor or a person with a disability. Subdivision (b) supplies fourteen factors. They include the fact that a minor is involved, the fee against the value of the services, the amount involved and the result obtained, informed consent, and, where the fee is contingent, the risk of loss the attorney bore, the costs advanced, and the delay before payment. A declaration from counsel accompanies the petition.
Section 6148 covers work that is not on a contingency, which matters when a matter starts as advice or a demand letter billed hourly. Where it is reasonably foreseeable that total expense to the client, fees included, will pass $1,000, the contract must be in writing and a signed duplicate given to the client. It must set out the basis of compensation, meaning hourly rates, statutory fees, flat fees and other standard rates and charges; the general nature of the services; and the respective responsibilities of attorney and client. Every bill must state its basis, one must be produced within ten days of a request, and a client may repeat that request at intervals of not less than thirty days. Non-compliance again leaves the agreement voidable at the client's option.
The fee schedule posted by the Superior Court of California, County of Sacramento prices a first paper by the amount in controversy. A complaint seeking up to $10,000 costs $225 under Government Code section 70613(b). One seeking more than $10,000 and up to $35,000 costs $370 under section 70613(a). An unlimited civil complaint above $35,000 costs $435 under section 70611, and each party other than the plaintiff pays $435 to appear. Reclassifying a limited case as unlimited later on costs another $140 under section 70619, which is a real consideration when a wound turns out to need reconstructive surgery after the case was filed small.
The same schedule prices what happens after filing. A motion or other paper requiring a hearing is $60 under Government Code section 70617(a). A motion for summary judgment or summary adjudication is $500 under section 70617(d), which is the largest single motion charge on the list and one reason those motions are not filed lightly. A continuance is $20, a stipulation and order $20, a change of venue charge $50, and a complex designation $1,000 against a statutory $18,000 ceiling per case. All are costs advanced, and the agreement should say who carries them.
Sacramento County Code chapter 8.24 requires every dog four months or older to be licensed and currently vaccinated against rabies. Animal Care charges $50 a year for an intact animal, $100 for two years and $150 for three, against $15, $30 and $40 for an altered animal, with a reduced $10 annual rate for an owner sixty-two or older keeping an altered pet. A late payment adds $25, a duplicate tag costs $5, and a qualifying competition animal or working ranch dog can be licensed unaltered for $45 a year. Galt and Isleton run their own lower amounts. Licensing and vaccination records are pulled routinely after an attack because they show what the owner had done, and had not done, before it happened.
Affidavits, Declarations and Appeals
Document the bite, the place, and the property relationship while the details are still available. If the attack involved a tenant’s dog, preserve the records that show notice and control—not just the injury itself.
Call (916) 937-0789No obligation · Written for Sacramento · Sacramento County