Manriquez

Javier Manriquez was injured in an automobile accident with James and Reba Adams. After Manriquez sued the Adamses his employer intervened in the suit to recover sums paid to Manriquez in workers’ compensation benefits. The Adamses settled with Manriquez’s employer for $17,500, in exchange for a release of claims and assignment of the workers’ compensation lien, and then settled with Manriquez for $5,000 “net” of the lien. The trial court awarded Manriquez $17,667.76 in attorney fees pursuant to Labor Code section 3860, subdivision (c), which authorizes payment of reasonable attorney fees to the employee’s attorney “[w]here settlement is effected, with or without suit, solely through the efforts of the employee’s attorney ... for his services in securing and effecting settlement for the benefit of both the employer and the employee.”

We conclude the trial court erred in awarding Manriquez attorney fees calculated by reference to a settlement fund valued to include the full amount of the lien, rather than the actual benefit received by the employer (or its assignee). Based upon the record before us, however, we are unable to determine whether the trial court also erred in…