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Mealey's Attorney Fees

  • April 29, 2025

    $2.4 Million Settlement Of Anesthesia Firms’ Data Breach Gets Final Approval

    WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — The same day that a New York federal judge presided over a fairness hearing for a $2.4 million settlement of a data breach suit against an anesthesia provider management company, he granted final approval of the agreement, disposing of putative class negligence and consumer protection violation claims against the firm and its affiliates in an April 28 order.

  • April 29, 2025

    Government Claims 2023 Immigrant Separation Pact Allows Legal Service Changes

    SAN DIEGO — A class settlement agreement approved in 2023 that ended claims by immigrants who sued the U.S. government after being separated from their children permits the government to change its method of providing legal services, the federal government argues in an opposition filed in a federal court in California to a motion by the class to enforce the agreement’s provision of legal services.

  • April 29, 2025

    Recommendation Favors Defendants’ Fee Bid In LTD Lawsuit Involving $30K Offer

    TAMPA, Fla. — Concluding in part that a rejected $30,000 offer of judgment made in 2021 was covered by a Florida fee-shifting statute, a Florida federal magistrate judge recommended granting a motion in which defendants in a cardiac surgeon’s lawsuit over denial of a disability benefits claim contend that they are entitled to attorney fees they estimate at $88,148.50.

  • April 28, 2025

    Both Supreme Court And District Court Deny Bids To Stay Patent Suit Sanctions

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Both the U.S. Supreme Court and a California federal court blocked requests to stay the entry of sanctions against three lawyers from a law firm representing a patent holder on April 25; the federal magistrate judge presiding over the lower court case said the attorneys failed to show that their pending appeal before the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has a substantial likelihood of success.

  • April 24, 2025

    4th Circuit: Local Court Attorney Fee Matrix Isn’t ‘Presumptively Reasonable’

    RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has vacated and remanded an attorney fee award in a fair labor practices case, finding that the district court improperly used an outdated local court rule’s attorney fee matrix to determine “presumptively reasonable” rates.

  • April 24, 2025

    Federal Circuit Denies ‘Urgent Requests’ To Consider Motion To Stay Sanctions

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in an April 23 per curiam order denied a pair of “urgent requests” for ruling on a motion to stay the entry of sanctions against three lawyers from a law firm representing a patent holder, saying the court would rule on the attorneys’ primary motion “in due course”; the order was issued a day after the attorneys filed a notice of application to the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • April 23, 2025

    Idaho High Court: Pattern Of Delay Supports Fees Award, Dismissal Sanction

    BOISE, Idaho — A trial court did not abuse its discretion in dismissing a declaratory complaint over a real estate agreement gone bad, the Idaho Supreme Court ruled, finding that state rules provide for sanctions including dismissal and awards of costs and attorney fees for a suit that was unreasonably brought or pursued.

  • April 23, 2025

    High Court Rejects Fee Petition From Company Liable For Counterfeits

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court decided not to hear arguments from a distribution company and the man who controls it, who argued that the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals was wrong to uphold the entry of attorney fees against them in a trademark infringement suit; the petitioners were found liable for selling counterfeited beauty products.

  • April 23, 2025

    Nebraska Supreme Court: Judgment Offer Entitles Defendants To Costs, Not Fees

    LINCOLN, Neb. — Two defendants in a quiet title suit should have had their motion for litigation costs granted in light of a ruling in their favor and an earlier offer of judgment, the Nebraska Supreme Court held, while also determining that the state statute on which the motion was based does not provide for an award of attorney fees.

  • April 22, 2025

    Supreme Court Rejects Rehearing Bid For Fees In Photo Copyright Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a rehearing petition from a real estate company sued by a photography company for copyright infringement in which the real estate outfit argued for a final time that it was due attorney fees as the prevailing party in the case after the photography company voluntarily dismissed the infringement suit.

  • April 21, 2025

    Resort Seeks Reduction In Fee Request After $133,000 Award To COVID Vaccine Refuser

    DETROIT — After a Michigan federal jury awarded $133,000 to a former employee of a resort, having determined that the resort failed to accommodate the employee’s religious beliefs that conflicted with getting the COVID-19 vaccine, the resort filed its response to the employee’s motion for $434,130 in attorney fees and costs, requesting that the court lower the award from the amount requested.

  • April 18, 2025

    Pennsylvania Federal Judge Awards Reduced $982,998 In Fees In Denny’s Settlement

    PITTSBURGH — A Pennsylvania federal judge has awarded a plaintiff in a wage and hour class settlement involving Denny’s restaurants $982,998 in attorney fees, reducing the requested amount by 11% for a variety of reasons, including reasonable fees for the Pittsburgh legal market.

  • April 18, 2025

    Judge Won’t Reconsider Denying Attorney Fees In Jury Trial Microcaptive Case

    FORT MYERS, Fla. — Saying that the rules the corporate plaintiffs invoked don’t “provide a basis for reconsideration,” a Florida federal judge declined to revisit his denial of approximately $600,000 in attorney fees and costs in consolidated jury trial cases where they successfully challenged penalties that were imposed because the Internal Revenue Service deemed their involvement with purported microcaptive insurance companies to be promotion of abusive tax shelters.

  • April 17, 2025

    $5M Deal Gets Final OK, With Trimmed Awards, In ERISA Fees, Funds Case

    PHILADELPHIA — A $5 million class settlement including an agreement to conduct requests for proposals (RFPs) has been granted final approval in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit challenging a multiemployer retirement plan’s fund choices, share classes and record-keeping, but a Pennsylvania federal judge awarded reduced incentive awards and attorney fees of $1,000 and $950,000, respectively, instead of the $8,000 and $1,666,500 requested.

  • April 17, 2025

    $195,000 Class Deal Gets Final OK In Suit Over Allegedly Fraudulent Policies

    SANTA ANA, Calif. — Noting the absence of objections and that “the average class member payment will be $467.77, and the highest payment will be $5,204.40,” a California federal judge granted final approval to a $195,000 class settlement that resolves a suit over allegedly counterfeited insurance policies sold through a captive reinsurance arrangement.

  • April 16, 2025

    Driver’s License Swiping Row Remanded To Oregon Court Without Attorney Fees Award

    PORTLAND, Ore. — A putative class action over a gas station chain’s practice of swiping customers’ driver’s licenses for age-restricted purchases was remanded to state court, with an Oregon federal judge fully adopting a magistrate’s recommendation to grant the plaintiff’s motion to remand for lack of standing.

  • April 16, 2025

    9th Circuit Affirms $1.5M Fees Award For Planned Parenthood In RICO Suit

    SAN FRANCISCO — Six months after the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed an attorney fees award in favor of Planned Parenthood of America Inc. in its long-running racketeering and wiretap suit against a group of anti-abortion activists that secretly recorded conversations and meetings, the same appeals panel affirmed another attorney fees award for the organization, this time related to appellate proceedings.

  • April 16, 2025

    5th Circuit Remands Attorney Fees Issue In Hurricane Laura Coverage Dispute

    NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals remanded two questions regarding attorney fees to a lower federal court and otherwise affirmed the judgment in favor of the church insured in a bad faith lawsuit arising from Hurricane Laura damage.

  • April 15, 2025

    NFL Plan To 5th Circuit: Let Fee Award Appeal Proceed In Disability Benefits Row

    NEW ORLEANS — Telling the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that the issues raised are not “grounds for dismissal” and that it “could not have forfeited an appeal of the new fee award and opinion before they existed, when the case was in the opposite posture,” the Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle NFL Player Retirement Plan on April 14 asked to be allowed to proceed with its appeal of an award of more than $1.25 million in attorney fees and costs to a former National Football League player.

  • April 14, 2025

    Federal Judge Rules GoDaddy TCPA Class Settlement Ruling Is Appealable

    MOBILE, Ala. — A February order declining enforcement of a Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) class settlement must be appealable as the decision involved a controlling question of law, “‘substantial’” differences of opinion exist and “‘immediate appeal may materially advance the ultimate termination of the litigation,’” a federal judge in Alabama ruled, quoting from 28 U.S. Code Section 1292(b).

  • April 11, 2025

    Prevailing Parties In Data Supply Agreement Row Get Almost $2.2M In Attorney Fees

    NEW YORK — Two marketing firms, which obtained a favorable summary judgment ruling over breach of contract and related claims by a data broker, were prevailing parties, a New York federal judge ruled, mostly granting their motion for attorney fees while declining to defer the ruling pending resolution of the plaintiff’s appeal.

  • April 11, 2025

    11th Circuit: No Fees For Tossed IP Claims In Land Purchase Dispute

    ATLANTA — An 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel left in place a jury’s finding that defendant real estate entities breached a land purchase agreement (LPA) but owed a plaintiff real estate company only $1 in damages; the panel also affirmed a Georgia federal judge’s decision to deny attorney fees to the plaintiff company for claims brought under the Copyright Act and the Lanham Act.

  • April 11, 2025

    Idaho Supreme Court Denies Utility’s Attorney Fees Quest Against Repeated Violator

    BOISE, Idaho — Although a nonprofit utility company partly prevailed in a dispute with a customer over a defective toilet and service shutoffs, the Idaho Supreme Court agreed with a trial court’s conclusion that because the utility did not completely prevail, it was not entitled to an award of attorney fees.

  • April 09, 2025

    Court Lacked Jurisdiction To Review Appraisal Award, Virginia Panel Affirms

    RICHMOND, Va. — A Virginia appeals court on April 8 affirmed a lower court’s ruling that it lacked jurisdiction to review a $1.7 million appraisal award in a hail and windstorm coverage dispute under the statute pleaded, further denying a property insurer and church insured’s requests for appellate attorney fees and costs.

  • April 09, 2025

    Federal Judge Approves Lyft Shareholder Derivative Settlement Requiring Reforms

    OAKLAND, Calif. — A federal judge in California granted final approval to a settlement in a shareholder derivative class action brought against Lyft Inc., under which the company agrees to implement several safety reforms.