Recovering Costs for Unused Trial Exhibits

Timothy Kowal, Esq.
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October 12, 2020
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Great news, you won your trial! Bad news, you only used half of your trial exhibits, so your client can't recover costs for the unused exhibits.

That could change. The California Supreme Court has granted review in Segal v. ASICS America Corp. for the limited purpose to resolve the split in authority over whether the prevailing party may recover costs for unused trial exhibits under Code Civ. Proc., § 1033.5. The Second Appellate District held such costs are recoverable, reasoning that the statute’s interpretation “must reflect the reality of how complicated cases are tried.”

A sound approach. A black-letter rule in either direction on this strikes me as a wrong one.