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Fam. Code, § 272 · Part 5. ATTORNEY'S FEES AND COSTS

Fam. Code, § 272

Verbatim from the official edition

Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)

(a) Where the court orders one of the parties to pay attorney’s fees and costs for the benefit of the other party, the fees and costs may, in the discretion of the court, be made payable in whole or in part to the attorney entitled thereto.

(b) Subject to subdivision (c), the order providing for payment of the attorney’s fees and costs may be enforced directly by the attorney in the attorney’s own name or by the party in whose behalf the order was made.

(c) If the attorney has ceased to be the attorney for the party in whose behalf the order was made, the attorney may enforce the order only if it appears of record that the attorney has given to the former client or successor counsel 10 days’ written notice of the application for enforcement of the order. During the 10-day period, the client may file in the proceeding a motion directed to the former attorney for partial or total reallocation of fees and costs to cover the services and cost of successor counsel. On the filing of the motion, the enforcement of the order by the former attorney shall be stayed until the court has resolved the motion.

Notes and commentary — not statutory text

History

Repealed and added by Stats. 1993, Ch. 219, Sec. 87. Effective January 1, 1994.

Source of truth

Edition
As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
Official file
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=FAM&sectionNum=272.
Text hash
sha256 adc3e23162402ed62fa48d418f5809d1bc1d36699dab91d73fdd3c791bf4f924
Composed by
compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section

Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.