NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS

WILLHITE, J.

Plaintiff Eugene Walsh purports to appeal from a judgment entered December 2, 2009, in his lawsuit against defendant Wilma Adams. We dismiss the appeal.

BACKGROUND

Plaintiff, an attorney, sued defendant, a former client, for $81,663.85 in unpaid legal fees.1 The record on appeal is sparse. The minute order of the final status conference in superior court of March 12, 2009 states: "[The] [p]arties agree to send this matter to reference under CCP 639. The parties stipulate to have the Court appoint Judge Thomas Nuss as referee under CCP 639 to determine all issues in these proceedings both of fact and law, not to exceed $450.00 per hour to be paid jointly by the parties." Although the minute order of the proceeding reflects the presence of a court reporter, no transcript of the proceeding is contained in the record on appeal.

On April 18, 2009, the referee filed his report, in which he reviewed the evidence (by stipulation of the parties, the evidence was documentary only, with no personal appearances before the referee), and concluded that plaintiff had failed to present any "credible evidence" to support his claim for fees. The referee ordered that plaintiff take nothing and that defendant be awarded costs and attorney fees.

In superior court, plaintiff filed objections to the referee's findings and a motion to set aside the findings. At a hearing on September 18, 2009, the court took the matter under submission. On September 21, 2009, it issued an order stating: "The objections to the Report of the Referee having been considered, the Court now decides as follows: The . . . report findings and recommendation are approved, confirmed and adopted by the court. The parties are ordered to comply with the terms thereof as the decision of the Court." Defendant later moved for attorney fees and costs, but the record on appeal contains no ruling on the motion. It also contains no judgment.

Plaintiff moved for a new trial (the motion states that judgment was entered on December 2, 2009). No ruling on the motion appears in the record.

On February 1, 2010, plaintiff filed a notice of appeal. The notice states that the appeal is from a judgment entered December 2, 2009 and the "[c]ourt order based on referee's report under CCP 639-643, et seq."

DISCUSSION

At the outset, we note that the clerk's transcript does not contain the required "judgment appealed from and any notice of its entry." (Cal. Rules of Court, rule 8.122 (b)(1)(B).) Although defendant cited this deficiency in her respondent's brief, plaintiff did not seek to augment the record. Rather, he argues in his reply brief that the absence of the judgment is a "non-issue," because "there is no disputing what the parties are talking about." He is mistaken. An appealable judgment or order is a jurisdictional requirement for an appeal. (Griset v. Fair Political Practices Com. (2001) 25 Cal.4th 688, 696.) Because it is plaintiff's burden to provide an adequate record on appeal (Osgood v. Landon (2005) 127 Cal.App.4th 425, 435), his failure to provide a record of the judgment he purports to appeal from requires that the appeal be dismissed.

We note, also, that in his opening brief defendant purports to challenge a postjudgment ruling awarding attorney fees and costs to defendant. To the extent he does so, his appeal must be dismissed because such an order is separately appealable, and he failed to specify it in his notice of appeal. (See DeZerega v. Meggs (2000) 83 Cal.App.4th 28, 43 [postjudgment award of attorney fees must be expressly specified in notice of appeal in order to be reviewable].) Moreover, the clerk's transcript on appeal does not contain any order on attorney fees and costs. (See Cal. Rules of Court, rule 8.122 (b)(1)(C) [clerk's transcript must contain "[a]ny order appealed from and any notice of its entry"].)

Even if we did not dismiss the appeal, we would conclude that plaintiff has forfeited his appellate claims because of other deficiencies in the record and in his briefing. Plaintiff contends that the judgment must be reversed because he did not expressly waive his right to a jury trial. Besides failing to cite any authority to support the notion that a formal jury waiver must occur when the trial court properly orders a trial by reference such as here, he has failed to provide a reporter's transcript of the proceeding on March 12, 2009 at which the reference was made. Thus, because we cannot know whether a formal jury waiver occurred, the record is inadequate and the contention is forfeited. (Wagner v. Wagner (2008) 162 Cal.App.4th 249, 259.)

Plaintiff contends that the trial court erred in accepting the referee's factual findings and overruling his objections, and in its ruling on attorney fees, but he fails to adequately cite to the record on appeal (such as it is) to support the contentions. He has thus forfeited the claims. (See Nwosu v. Uba (2004) 122 Cal.App.4th 1229, 1247.)

DISPOSITION

The appeal is dismissed. Defendant shall receive her costs on appeal.

We concur:

EPSTEIN, P. J.

MANELLA, J.