Unless “specifically provided for by statute, the measure and mode of compensation of attorneys and counselors at law is left to the agreement, express or implied, of the parties.” (Code Civ. Proc., § 1021.) Although there are statutes in our code that permit a trial court to award attorney fees as sanctions for pretrial motion practice under many circumstances, section 473 is not one of them.
For this reason, we grant Karla Amezcua’s petition for a writ of mandate directing the trial court to vacate an order that grants her leave to amend the operative complaint, but only if she pays $25,000 to Massage Envy Franchising, LLC (Massage Envy). Neither the court nor Massage Envy invoked the authority of statutes that do allow attorney fees as sanctions (see §§ 128.5, 128.7). Sua sponte, the court awarded attorney fees to penalize delay and inefficiencies in seeking to amend a[n employment] complaint on the basis of section 473. As we explain, this was not authorized. We grant the requested relief and direct the court to strike the payment condition from its order to the extent it includes attorney fees.
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