Subjunctivitis posted:

The California Department of Consumer Affairs states that I could (nay, should) ask for my fees to be rewarded to me:

At the hearing, you should ask the judge to award your court costs if you win. Costs are out-of-pocket fees and charges a party pays to file and present a lawsuit. If you're awarded costs, the award is included in the judgment against the losing party. In most cases, costs are awarded to the prevailing (winning) party, but you should still ask the judge for them at the hearing. If neither party is truly a "prevailing party," the judgment might not include awards of either costs or interest. In that situation, both parties may be "winners" — always a goal in small claims court.

Be sure to keep receipts for your filing fees and other out-of-pocket costs. Only some kinds of costs (called "allowable costs") can be recovered from the losing party but others can't. Costs that may be recovered include amounts you have paid for court filing fees; expenses of service of process (including the cost of locating the defendant for service, if reasonable); witness fees (but generally not for expert witnesses); and fees for service of subpoenas (of either witnesses or documents). Since other kinds of out-of-pocket expenses might be awarded at the judge's discretion, bring your receipts to the hearing. However, expenses other than those listed above are not ordinarily awarded.

It's unclear to me, however, if that includes fees incurred for an attorney's preparation of documents...