Attransco

After the American Trader ran aground off Huntington Beach and released thousands of gallons of crude oil, several state agencies represented by the Attorney General sued the owner of the ship to recover cleanup costs. Then commenced a paper war—or, more precisely, a war by paper. Instead of oil, now it was paper that gushed. Tens of thousands of pages of documents were produced in discovery; numerous motions were fought. The private lawyers for the shipowner deluged their civil servant opponents with successive court proceedings.

One of the state agency plaintiffs, the Department of Fish and Game, sought reinforcements. After receiving written permission from the Attorney General, the department employed an outside law firm to help it counter the shipowner’s oppressive litigation tactics. Eighteen months later, the shipowner launched a strike at the department’s new troops by moving to disqualify them. The shipowner’s legal theory was their involvement violated a provision of the Government Code section 12520, which forbids the Attorney General from employing special counsel. When the attack failed and the trial court denied the motion to disqualify, the shipowner…