-
June 25, 2026
MIAMI — A Florida appeals panel on June 24 affirmed a lower court’s $389,362.50 lodestar fee award to an insured in a Hurricane Irma coverage dispute but reversed the court’s 2.5 contingency risk multiplier and $42,658.25 award for the fees of two of the insured’s expert witnesses who did not testify at trial, holding that the lower court’s ruling as to the contingency risk multiplier failed to support the imposition of any multiplier, let alone the highest possible multiplier of 2.5.
-
June 25, 2026
SHERMAN, Texas — Rejecting an insurer’s “flawed interpretation of the subrogation provision” under Texas law, a Texas federal magistrate judge granted summary judgment for a long-term disability (LTD) claimant on all claims asserted by an insurer, then ruled that the claimant’s counterclaims for breach of contract and attorney fees survive because of fact questions.
-
June 23, 2026
CHICAGO — A Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a lower court’s reduced attorney fee award to a church in its lawsuit against Chicago regarding a parking ordinance, agreeing with the lower court that the church’s limited success in the case was reason to reduce the attorney fee award, even though the church’s claims were related to each other.
-
June 22, 2026
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A Florida appellate court panel held that a lower court erred in mandating the Florida Insurance Guaranty Association to pay $10,507.90 to insureds’ law firm as part of a settlement between the insureds and their insolvent insurer in a Hurricane Irma coverage dispute, reversing the lower court’s decision.
-
June 22, 2026
LOS ANGELES — Ford Motor Co. filed a complaint in California federal court seeking recovery for what it calls “one of the largest attorney billing fraud schemes in California history,” asserting that a plaintiffs’ firm that has sued it repeatedly under California’s lemon law violated the state’s unfair competition law (UCL) by billing Ford for an estimated $25 million in “fabricated” attorney fee records based on fees for non-attorneys, including “overseas virtual assistants.”
-
June 19, 2026
LONDON — An English judge granted a Bermudian insurer’s application for an anti-suit injunction against several insureds based in Texas and Louisiana who sued the insurer in Louisiana and have refused to arbitrate COVID-19 insurance claims, finding that a Louisiana state law barring arbitration of insurance disputes does not apply to the insurer’s arbitration agreement and awarding it more than $700,000 and 400,000 English pounds in attorney fees and costs.
-
June 17, 2026
LOS ANGELES — After a federal judge in California granted final judgment in favor of developers who filed suit seeking insurance coverage for construction defects, the developers are asking the judge to add the amount of prejudgment interest to the judgment.
-
June 16, 2026
PHILADELPHIA — For the second time since a class settlement valued at $27 million was reached in a suit alleging that BMW knowingly manufactured vehicles equipped with defective engines, a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel vacated a $3.7 million fee award for class counsel, finding that the lower court approved problematic lodestar enhancements.
-
June 15, 2026
CINCINNATI — A trial court largely correctly calculated an attorney fee award in a long-running cash advance class case but erred when it applied the method for standardizing legal fees in complex federal litigation in the Washington, D.C., area to firms outside of Washington, the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in an unpublished opinion.
-
June 15, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge granted final approval of a class action settlement worth more than $12.8 million, partly in warranty extensions and partly in reimbursement, to resolve claims that a car manufacturer violated California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by forcing customers to pay out of pocket for certain repairs that California emissions regulations require to be covered by warranty and awarded more than $945,000 in attorney fees.
-
June 12, 2026
DENVER — A 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a lower court’s award of attorney fees in a breach of contract dispute, finding that a bank pursued claims against the former wife of a man whose properties it was seeking to foreclose upon in bad faith.
-
June 12, 2026
CHICAGO — A Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed the denial of a motion for attorney fees filed by a plaintiff’s lawyers after a settlement was reached and attorney fees awarded in a multidistrict litigation because a case management order and class counsel’s motion for attorney fees clearly stated that the plaintiff’s counsel could not seek an award for any pre-MDL time.
-
June 12, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal magistrate judge on June 11 granted final approval to a settlement of class claims against a California company accused of deceptively marketing its domestic Japanese-style sake as originating in Japan in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL), with the company agreeing to change its labels and the plaintiff’s attorneys awarded fees and costs totaling $645,000.
-
June 12, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a lower court’s decision to award attorney fees to attorneys after they prevailed in a case brought by an individual for conversion and legal malpractice, finding the lower court did not abuse its discretion because it had ensured that the fee award was reasonable.
-
June 11, 2026
PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania borough will change its business practices and pay $1,250,000 to end class claims that it towed, impounded and disposed of vehicles without providing owners with basic due process protections of notice and a hearing, after a federal judge in that state granted final settlement approval.
-
June 09, 2026
LOS ANGELES — After more than a decade of litigation, a California state court judge granted final approval to a statewide class action settlement resolving claims that Tinder Inc., which owns and operates a popular dating app, violated California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act and unfair competition law (UCL) by overcharging older users of its app for premium services, for which Tinder agreed to pay $60.5 million including more than $20.1 million in attorney fees.
-
June 09, 2026
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Declining to disturb an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) fiduciary’s decisions regarding disbursement of almost $16 million in proceeds from two confidential settlements that were made without court action, a Wisconsin federal judge ruled that the remaining defendants in a long-running Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit “have not established that the court has the authority or duty to require” the “additional due process and fairness protections” requested regarding the settlement funds.
-
June 09, 2026
CINCINNATI — A Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held that a lower court largely acted within its discretion in awarding attorney fees in a class action brought by customers of Fifth Third Bank against the bank after the customers were granted summary judgment on their Truth in Lending Act (TILA) claim and a jury found in favor of the bank on the customers’ breach of contract claim, but the panel found that different forum rates should have been applied to two of the class’ firms.
-
June 08, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge awarded class counsel $2.2 million in attorney fees plus more than $23,000 in expenses after previously granting final approval to an $8.9 million settlement of the plaintiffs’ class action against the manufacturer of a soda product for violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by deceptively labeling its soda as “Prebiotic” and “gut healthy,” awarding slightly less in attorney fees than was sought and reducing the named plaintiffs’ service awards.
-
June 04, 2026
OAKLAND, Calif. — A federal judge in California granted final approval to an $85 million settlement in a class action brought by investors against Wells Fargo & Company and certain of its executives alleging that news of the company’s practice of using fake interviews to give the impression of complying with internal diversity hiring practices led to a drop in the company’s stock value.
-
June 03, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — While a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said in a June 2 opinion that it agreed with a Nebraska federal judge’s finding that patents describing the sharing of farming data were directed at patent-ineligible abstract concepts, the panel also held that the judge failed to adequately explain why the case was not exceptional for the purpose of attorney fees under the Patent Act.
-
June 03, 2026
CHICAGO — More than four years after an attorney fees motion was filed in an antitrust case accusing broiler sellers of fixing the prices for chicken and following two appeals to the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, a federal judge in Illinois awarded the end user consumer plaintiff (EUCP) class attorney fees of 26.6% of the net common fund resulting from settlements with sellers and awarded money to the two settlement objectors.
-
June 02, 2026
HONOLULU — A federal judge in Hawaii issued an opinion and order granting final approval of a $100 million derivative settlement in a case brought by investors on behalf of Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. stemming from the August 2023 wildfires that broke out on Maui.
-
June 02, 2026
CINCINNATI — A Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed an award of attorney fees based on an oral agreement between attorneys who worked on a case for five years and an attorney they brought onto the litigation team shortly before an anticipated trial, finding that the longer-standing attorneys’ account of the oral agreement was “coherent,” “plausible” and “consistent with how every other late-added attorney was paid.”
-
June 02, 2026
PHOENIX — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel awarded an Italian wine company all of its attorney fees incurred defending against a “frivolous” appeal brought by an American distributor challenging the confirmation of an International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) award against it in a trademark dispute, and ordered further proceedings to determine the amount of fees owed.