California Judges Get More Power Over Trial Lawyers’ Case Costs

A party may recover costs only at a trial judge’s discretion for preparing multiple sets of exhibits and closing slides that weren’t used at a trial, a unanimous California Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

The justices, resolving a split among the intermediate appellate courts, unanimously ruled that the winning party’s costs aren’t categorically recoverable and must be “reasonably necessary to the conduct of the litigation rather than merely convenient or beneficial to its preparation.”

“The Legislature could have spelled out a categorical prohibition against shifting costs for inadmissible exhibits, but did not,” Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye wrote. “In the absence of ...