Comprehensive tort reform legislation was passed by the Florida Legislature on Thursday, March 23, 2023. By noon Friday, March 24, 2023, Governor Ron DeSantis signed the legislation, which was one of his pre-session...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in McKnight v. Hinojosa, No. 21-16623, 2022 WL 17333820 (9th Cir. Nov. 30, 2022) considered whether the proposed class action settlement was a "coupon settlement" and therefore...more
Ninth Circuit decision prohibits use of lodestar-only methodology to calculate a fee award for class action settlements involving coupons. The decision contemplates coupon class action settlements where coupons are...more
Contingency fee multipliers increase attorney fee awards substantially. The general custom in American law is that each party is responsible for his or her own attorney’s fees, regardless of the outcome of the action. See...more
There’s something uniquely interesting about judicial opinions involving class action attorneys’ fees. For class counsel, it’s the culmination of years of work. ...more
Answer: When your fee request was $25 million higher. And so it was in In Re: Volkswagen “Clean Diesel” Marketing, Sales Practices, and Products Liability Litigation, pending in federal court in San Francisco. ...more
There are several different stakeholders in class actions. There are the named parties, of course, and the members of the putative class, to the extent plaintiff seeks to sweep them into the lawsuit. ...more
Under O2 Micro, a District Court Must Provide a Claim Construction if the Parties Dispute the Meaning of a Claim Term - In Eon Corp. IP Holdings LLC v. Silver Springs Networks, Inc., Appeal No. 2015-1237, the Federal...more
Addressing whether deterrence can play a role in an attorneys’ fee award under § 285, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that once a case is deemed exceptional, § 285 only authorizes an award of reasonable...more
The Seventh Circuit affirmed a class action coupon settlement involving “clear sailing” and “kicker” clauses and a fee award based on the lodestar analysis rather than the value of the redeemed coupons, and notwithstanding a...more
In In Re Southwest Airlines Voucher Litigation, Case No. 13-3264 (7th Cir. Aug. 20, 2015), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit upheld a fee award to class counsel in a class action that resulted in a “coupon...more
Plaintiffs’ lawyer-turned-professor Morris Ratner has published a new article on making litigation costs a profit center for class action plaintiffs. You may remember he wrote about this issue before with Professor William...more
As we have noted in previous posts (most recently here and here), courts have been paying closer attention to the terms of FLSA settlements and occasionally refusing to approve agreements where the amount of attorneys’ fees...more
In Americana Art China Company, Inc. v. Foxfire Printing & Packaging, Inc., 743 F.3d 243 (7th Cir. Feb. 18, 2014), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed the district court’s attorneys’ fees award in a...more
In an opinion reminiscent of the famous Rolling Stones song, Judge Richard Stearns on December 26th awarded plaintiffs' class counsel fees of $75,959.00 of a requested amount of $450,000 for work performed in connection with...more
In Padgett v. Loventhal, U.S.C.A. 9th, DAR p. 1933 (Feb. 11, 2013), the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decided District Courts must explain how they reduce requests for fees and costs from partially victorious plaintiffs. ...more