People ex rel. City of San Diego v. Experian Data Corp.

INTRODUCTION

The City of San Diego (the City) sued Experian Data Corp. (Experian) on behalf of the People of the State of California for violating the Unfair Competition Law (Bus. & Prof. Code, § 17200 et seq.) (UCL). The City hired three private law firms to represent it in the litigation against Experian on a contingency fee basis. The trial court denied Experian’s motion to disqualify the private law firms; we affirm. The contingency fee arrangements between the City and the private law firms in a UCL action filed by the City’s attorneys do not violate the prosecutor’s duty of neutrality and therefore do not require disqualification. Further, the agreements to pay the private law firms from any penalties recovered from Experian do not violate Business and Professions Code section 17206’s requirement that all funds recovered in a UCL action be paid to the City’s treasurer.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

U.S. Infosearch.com (USI) is an Ohio-based company that sells data, including social security numbers and other personal data, to licensed investigators, government agencies, and legal industry professionals. Court Ventures, Inc. (CVI) was a California-based corporation that…