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September 18, 2026
BURLINGTON, Vt. — Noting that the long-running Employee Retirement Income Security Act dispute concerning deferred compensation “was in the top three percent of contentious cases” she had encountered, a Vermont federal judge awarded less than half of the amounts the parties requested for attorney fees, directing a plaintiff who was a breaching co-fiduciary to pay $189,478.92 for the defendants’ attorney fees and the defendants to pay $320,272.39 for the remaining plaintiffs’ attorney fees and costs.
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September 18, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia Court of Appeals panel denied a law firm’s petition for rehearing of the court’s opinion affirming a lower court’s confirmation of an arbitrator’s final award allocating contingent attorney fees to four law firms that represented a military equipment company in an underlying action.
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September 18, 2026
LAS VEGAS — A split panel of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s award of attorney fees in a false advertising suit, holding that the case was “exceptional" under the Lanham Act because the plaintiff repeatedly pursued meritless claims despite prior dismissals.
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September 18, 2026
MONTPELIER, Vt. — A Vermont Supreme Court panel held that a trial court erred in awarding attorney fees to a lender after the borrower defaulted on the loan’s promissory note, finding that the lender did not present the requisite evidence that the requested attorney fees were reasonable after the borrower disputed the fees’ reasonableness.
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September 18, 2026
CARSON CITY, Nev. — A Nevada Supreme Court panel held that a lower court erred in awarding attorneys the full amount of requested contingent attorney fees for representing a man in a medical malpractice suit, finding that the fees were capped under state law because the settled claim sounded in professional negligence rather than ordinary negligence.
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September 17, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In his Sept. 16 opening merits brief, an immigration detainee urges the U.S. Supreme Court to hold that a habeas corpus action challenging civil detention qualifies as a “civil action “under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA), allowing a prevailing petitioner to request attorney fees and costs under the EAJA.
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September 17, 2026
NEW YORK — A Delaware-based esports company on Sept. 16 filed a response in New York federal court to a United Kingdom video game arena owner’s petition to confirm a JAMS arbitral award against it and its subsidiary worth more than $7.7 million, writing that it “does not oppose confirmation of the arbitration award” but that it opposes the petitioner’s request for attorney fees and costs incurred bringing the litigation, writing that a fee award is not warranted based on its nonpayment of the award because the parties are engaged in settlement discussions.
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September 16, 2026
LOS ANGELES — Ford Motor Co. filed a brief in California federal court opposing a law firm’s motion to dismiss and strike Ford’s complaint accusing the firm of violating the state’s unfair competition law (UCL) by allegedly fraudulently billing Ford for more than $25 million in allegedly “fabricated” attorney fees accumulated through multiple lawsuits brought against it under California’s Lemon Law, which the firm says is an impermissible “retaliatory” suit.
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September 16, 2026
BOSTON — In a memorandum and order citing the prejudice a long-term disability (LTD) claimant suffered and the LTD plan administrator’s “lack of concern for its” statutory obligations under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, a Massachusetts federal judge decided that the claimant is entitled to a “modest” penalty of $5,000 because the administrator provided plan documents only 230 days after the first of the claimant’s many requests.
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September 14, 2026
NEW YORK — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a New York federal judge’s award of nearly $5 million in attorney fees to six women who prevailed on Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) claims against bond trader Howard Rubin, holding that the judge reasonably used a case-specific lodestar analysis and acted within his broad discretion in setting above-usual local rates and trimming the claimed hours by 15%.
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September 14, 2026
BOISE, Idaho — The Idaho Supreme Court found that a lower court properly denied business damages to the owner of property condemned for a highway interchange and affiliated intervenors because the property owner did not own the businesses at issue and the intervenors’ businesses were not located on the property but held that the Idaho Transportation Board (ITB) was not entitled to attorney fees on appeal because the appeal was not frivolous.
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September 11, 2026
MIAMI — A Florida appellate court reversed a lower court’s order enforcing the full settlement amount against the Florida Insurance Guaranty Association (FIGA) for a hurricane damage claim settlement agreed upon between a now-insolvent insurer and an insured, finding that the homeowner failed to meet her burden to show that the settlement did not include attorney fees; the court remanded for a hearing to determine whether a portion of payments to counsel were for attorney fees.
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September 11, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge awarded $146.78 million in attorney fees and service awards totaling $135,000 in a privacy class action over Google LLC’s collection of mobile-app data, while in a separate posttrial order the judge denied the plaintiffs a new trial on their California Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act (CDAFA) claim and rejected Google’s bid to overturn a $425.65 million privacy verdict.
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September 10, 2026
NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York issued a final order and judgment granting final approval of a $5,875,000 settlement to end investors’ securities fraud class action against a Chinese internet and data center service provider and certain of its former executives.
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September 09, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Sept. 8 affirmed a California federal judge’s decision to award more than $700,000 in attorney fees against a plaintiff-appellant entity in a dispute over patents covering three-dimensional sensing technologies, finding that the record does not establish that the plaintiff-appellant conducted an adequate presuit investigation.
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September 08, 2026
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A Florida appellate court reversed a lower court’s final judgment requiring the Florida Insurance Guaranty Association (FIGA) to pay $20,000 for attorney fees pursuant to a settlement between a now-insolvent insurer and an insured’s assignee, finding that the record does not indicate that the obligation to pay $20,000 under the settlement agreement constituted a covered claim under Florida law.
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September 08, 2026
SALT LAKE CITY — Deciding that failure to disclose a contingency fee for legal services in accordance with a Utah discovery rule means that the fee cannot be awarded as consequential damages, the Utah Supreme Court reversed part of a trial court’s attorney fee ruling in a suit that sprang from a real estate project.
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September 04, 2026
ST. LOUIS — An Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a lower court’s order granting an attorney fee award against a police officer in an unlawful arrest case, denying cross-appeals by the officer and the man who was arrested regarding the amount of the fee and the hourly rate used to calculate it.
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September 04, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In separately filed petitions for rehearing, a patent holder is requesting that the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reconsider a panel’s decision to affirm a Texas federal judge’s dismissal of its suit against Volkswagen Group of America Inc. and an award of more than $200,000 in attorney fees, and the entity’s counsel William P. Ramey III is requesting that the appeals court reconsider its timeliness finding that led it to reject his appeal of the judge’s order holding him jointly and severally liable.
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August 28, 2026
PHILADELPHIA — A federal judge in Pennsylvania granted final approval to an $800,000 settlement between Widener University and a class of students that contended the school breached contracts and was unjustly enriched when it failed to provide prorated refunds for tuition and fees after the school shuttered on-campus teaching, services and amenities and transitioned to remote teaching in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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August 28, 2026
NEW YORK — Granting final approval of a settlement that a class of employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) participants said “will deliver more than $22.5 million in total economic value through a combination of cash, loan reductions, and liquidity provisions,” a New York federal judge awarded $6.2 million for attorney fees and $727,406.93 for litigation expenses and $35,000 for settlement administration expenses as requested — but denied a request for two $10,000 service awards for the named plaintiffs.
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August 27, 2026
DALLAS — A Texas federal judge granted the Slovak Republic’s motion for default judgment and ordered the enforcement of an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) award in which a tribunal rejected a U.S. oil drilling company’s $133 million claim against the Republic for impairing its investment and instead ordered the driller to pay the Republic’s attorney fees and arbitration costs.
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August 27, 2026
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — A Florida appellate court affirmed a lower court’s ruling granting insureds’ motion to enforce a settlement agreement against the Florida Insurance Guaranty Association Inc. (FIGA) in a breach of contract dispute over alleged loss related to hail and wind damage.
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August 26, 2026
RICHMOND, Va. — Affirming rulings against the appellant on all other points — including a decision under which he was required to pay attorney fees totaling $122,951 — the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed and remanded a claim in which he sought statutory Employee Retirement Income Security Act penalties for a retirement plan’s failure to produce an administrative services agreement (ASA) at his request.
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August 26, 2026
ST. LOUIS — A Missouri state judge granted final approval to a $2,525,000 settlement between a healthcare provider and a class of individuals whose personally identifying information and health data were disclosed when the provider fell victim to a 2025 cyberattack.