California Criminal Lawyer Blog

On December 27, 2005, Ron Capizzi filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the County of Orange and a bunch of rogue Orange County deputy sheriffs.

After three grueling years of all out litigation, including the taking of every deposition possible at the cost of tens of thousands of dollars in litigations costs, the case finally settled on the eve of trial for $38,000 on December 15, 2008.

Three years of litigation. Tens of thousands of dollars in litigation costs. Why didn't this case settle sooner?

The answer is easy. Counties and cities hire outside counsel to represent them in such cases. It is not valuable to a private civil law firm to settle a case early. The interest of the law firm is to bill the county for the largest amount possible. Settling the case early is a conflict. The best interest of the county is generally not the best interest of the law firm.

What happened in the Capizzi case is typical of outside law firms billing the taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars in costs and attorney fees for cases that should be handled quickly and settled immediately. I suspect, and will soon find out, that the Santa Ana law firm of Sullivan & Ballog billed more than 100,000 in costs and fees to the County of Orange over those three years. It's public record.

And what did the county get out of it? A big bill. The county and it's cops got thrown under the bus. After all that time, they finally gave money to the Plaintiff. But they gave much, much more money to the attorney who defended him. The cops didn't win. The County didn't win. The plaintiff and his attorney didn't win. But Santa Ana law firm Sullivan & Ballog won big.

Now, it's happening again. The same Santa Ana lawfirm is billing, billing, billing on the case of Toy White v. County of Orange. (A separate law firm also just settled a different case by a different lawfirm against Deputy Allan Waters, one of the cops in the White case on the even of trial. Click HERE for the story. We'll be getting those costs and fees, too).

You will remember that Toy White is the 5'1" cosmetics rep who was brutally beaten to the ground when the dogcatcher and a band of four - count 'em FOUR - heavily armed Orange County deputy sheriff's burst into her house to take her dog that had been involved in a minor bite. They didn't have the right. They had no warrant. There was no legal cause to bust into her house and slam her to the floor, other than what they made up in their reports to justifies their actions. See HERE for story in the Orange County Register.

The City of Mission Viejo, who employed the dogcatcher, settled the case. But it's not amazing that the C ounty refuses to take resposibility for it's rogue bunch of brutal cops.

Now, the same firm that ripped off the County of Orange, the Orange County Sheriff's Department and the cops in the Capizzi case to the tune of more than $100,000 in litigation costs and attorney fees, is refusing to made any good faith settlement offers in the Toy White case. Is this another Capizzi case? Uh, we think so.

Same lead attorney - Al Ballog. Same law firm - Sullivan & Ballog.

I am preparing a California Public Records Act request to various cities and counties to get the exact costs of litigation and attorney fees on a series of cases, like Capizzi and White.

What you will see - because I've obtained the litigation cost bills and attorney fees billed to public entities in the past - is a pattern and practice of out-of-control billing by outside firms that will make you more ill than when you first heard about the $1,500 toilet seat on Airforce I.