Avila

I. BACKGROUND

In November 2022, Avila filed a complaint against defendants alleging fraud, misappropriation of name, and other claims. As alleged in the complaint, Avila worked as an associate attorney at the law office for seven months and, at some point, agreed to handle several immigration deportation defense cases. He was named as counsel of record in the immigration cases. After Avila resigned, the law office’s office managers agreed that the law office would file substitution motions for the immigration cases. More than one year later, Avila discovered the law office had not substituted in new counsel and he remained counsel of record for seven active immigration cases. The law office thereafter denied his requests to gain access to the case files, despite upcoming trial dates. On January 17, 2024, Avila submitted an offer to compromise pursuant to section 998 for $40,000 with judgment entered in his favor. On January 30, John Kitta, defendants’ counsel and the law office’s principal,2 emailed Avila defendants’ section 998 offer. Kitta explained the rationale for the offer in the body of the email and the document containing the offer itself was attached to the email.…