SAN DIEGO (LN) — A federal judge in the Southern District of California awarded Batta Fulkerson, LLP only $22,543 of the $77,190 it sought in attorney fees after finding that the bulk of the hours its counsel billed could not be traced to Bulldog Law, P.C.'s failure to answer a single set of interrogatories.
The dispute traces to Bulldog Law's complete failure to respond to Batta Fulkerson's Revised First Set of Interrogatories, served July 14, 2025. Magistrate Judge Karen S. Crawford had already sanctioned Bulldog Law under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 37(b)(2)(A) and 37(d)(1)(a)(ii), ordering the firm and its attorneys Mario P. Tafur and Phillip R. Berwish to pay Batta Fulkerson's reasonable fees caused by that noncompliance. The May 8 order resolved how much that obligation would be.
The court accepted Trestle Law's billing rates without dispute — $695 per hour for managing attorney Kristen G. Roberts, $650 for senior attorney Amanda L. Bruss, $400 and $350 for associates, and $150 for a paralegal — finding them consistent with prevailing San Diego rates for intellectual property litigation.
The fight was over hours, not rates. Batta Fulkerson argued that all discovery-related billing in the case was necessarily incurred in connection with the interrogatory dispute. The court disagreed, applying the causal-nexus requirement that fees under Rule 37 must be directly caused misconduct at issue, not litigation.
The court drew a hard line meet-and-confer process. Because Bulldog Law did participate round of informal resolution — which began August 19, 2025, produced a Joint Discovery Statement, and culminated in a September 19 discovery conference — those hours reflected ordinary discovery practice and were excluded. The court found the second round of meet-and-confer efforts, begun October 7, 2025, after Bulldog Law violated Judge Crawford's order to respond by October 3, to be fully compensable.
The court also rejected more than $10,000 in deposition costs. Batta Fulkerson had argued the depositions of Bulldog Law and Tafur were rendered unproductive by the interrogatory noncompliance, but the court found the depositions were noticed while the parties were still litigating multiple discovery disputes and that Batta Fulkerson would have taken them regardless. Hours related to a denied motion to reopen discovery were likewise excluded.
Bulldog Law had argued in opposition that the billing was "unreasonable, egregiously inaccurate, and unrelated to the alleged failure to respond to discovery." The court did not adopt that framing wholesale but agreed the request swept in far more than the sanctions order authorized.
Tafur, Berwish, and Bulldog Law must pay the $22,543 award by June 8, 2026, and file a declaration confirming payment by June 15. The court warned that failure to comply "may result in the imposition of additional sanctions" — and noted separately that deposition costs remain potentially shiftable depending on a special master's forthcoming recommendation.