Legal Question in Personal Injury in California

Certain costs, yes. But not what costs that are considered overhead of attorney.

There is a big difference between fees and costs. "Costs" are monies that your lawyer spent on your behalf--money that you would have had to spend to pursue the case, but that he paid for you, as an advance. That's money you owe him because he loaned it to you. It's not compensation for his time, it's just giving him back his own money.

Yes. Costs and fees are two different things.

It depends on the terms of your fee agreement, but almost always the 1/3 is for the lawyer's services, and his or her direct costs of handling the case are added on top of that.

In principle, yes. Since we don't know what these chargers were for or what your contract says, we can't tell you whether the charges were proper.