The Ninth Circuit has been silent for the last couple of days. Perhaps still processing the election. and figuring our their likely future colleagues.
Not so the California Court of Appeal. Today we see, for example, this opinion. Which shows that it's possible to dispense with a totally easy appeal in six double-spaced pages. Including the page-and-a-half caption.
Why the Fresno County Counsel thought that recoverable "costs" in a bail forfeiture proceeding include attorney's fees is beyond me. Yes, the statute allows "costs" to be recoverable, and yes, counties don't incur many "costs" in these proceedings because they're a municipality. But that doesn't mean that costs include fees. Costs include costs, even if you don't have any.
Justice Levy decides the case the right way. Though he make the parties bear their own costs, whereas I might have applied the usual cost-shifting rule. Which seems only appropriate given the topic of the underlying appeal.
