Attorney's Fees Exposure Calculator

Model fees from estimated hours and hourly rates. Compare your own multiplier assumptions; no case-outcome prediction is built into the tool.

Estimated Reasonable Attorney Hours

Blended Reasonable Hourly Rate ($)

Low Multiplier Assumption

High Multiplier Assumption

Underlying Damages / Penalties ($)

Separate Litigation Costs ($)

Unadjusted lodestar: $50,000 (100 hours × $500).

Low Scenario

1× assumed adjustment

$50,000

Combined: $300,000

Midpoint

Arithmetic midpoint

$62,500

Combined: $312,500

High Scenario

1.5× assumed adjustment

$75,000

Combined: $325,000

A small damages claim can require substantial attorney work; a large recovery does not itself fix the fee award. Use supported hours and rates, identify work attributable to fee-bearing claims, and document the reason for any proposed adjustment. No multiplier is applied automatically because a claim is brought under PAGA.

Methodology

The starting lodestar is reasonable attorney hours multiplied by a reasonable hourly rate. A court may adjust that amount where the governing fee authority permits; entitlement, compensable work, reasonableness and any adjustment require their own analysis. (Ketchum v. Moses (2001) 24 Cal.4th 1122.)

Enter low and high multiplier assumptions to see their arithmetic effect. These inputs are yours, not a dataset of reported awards or an automatic consequence of litigation phase, complexity or the presence of PAGA claims. A multiplier of 1 leaves the lodestar unchanged.

Underlying damages or penalties and separately modeled costs are added only to show the combined scenario. They do not determine fees. The current PAGA fee provision is Labor Code section 2699(k)(1), which addresses reasonable attorney’s fees and costs for an employee who prevails. Fee entitlement and the applicable statutory version must be assessed before applying a scenario.