What are Brandt fees in California?
Brandt fees are the attorney's fees a California insured spent to recover policy benefits the insurer withheld in bad faith. They come from Brandt v. Superior Court (1985) 37 Cal.3d 813 and are recoverable as tort damages — the portion of the fee attributable to obtaining the benefits, not the portion for pursuing the bad faith tort itself.
What Brandt covers and what it doesn't
Brandt fees are limited to fees incurred to recover the contractual policy benefits. Fees spent litigating the tort claim (emotional distress, punitives) are not recoverable under Brandt. The allocation is usually resolved by stipulation, expert testimony, or a percentage.
Why the evidence file matters for Brandt
A clean correspondence log and citation map lets your attorney allocate fees credibly — the more the record shows fees were spent chasing withheld benefits (not litigating the tort), the larger the Brandt recovery.
Need the evidence organized?
We build the bad faith evidence file for California policyholders: correspondence log, line-item estimate comparison, §790.03 citation map, and an exhibit-ready binder. $95/hour, client-directed.
Open an evidence fileRelated questions
Educational information only. Legal Document Assistants provide evidence services under California Business & Professions Code §6400 et seq.; we do not provide legal advice.