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Mealey's Attorney Fees

  • January 08, 2026

    Insurer’s Rescission Bid Denied In Coverage Dispute As To Underlying Litigation

    BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A New York federal judge denied an insurer’s motion for summary judgment seeking rescission of policies due to a purported material misrepresentation in a policy application and a determination that the insurer has no duty to defend in underlying personal injury litigation involving a property owner and a property manager, finding “that there was no misrepresentation” in the application and that there is no dispute that a duty to defend is covered under the policies.

  • January 07, 2026

    Judge Orders Author Who Accused Netflix Of Copying Book To Pay Fees

    ORLANDO, Fla. — A Florida federal judge granted a request for attorney fees from Netflix Inc. and related entities, calling an author’s claims that the 2021 disaster comedy “Don’t Look Up” copied elements of two of his novels “objectively unreasonable, if not frivolous.”

  • January 07, 2026

    Judge Nixes Fees And Costs Deal For More Than $7.5M In Pension Case, For Now

    KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Citing “the uncertainty of the appellate relief and operation of the agreement,” a Kansas federal judge on Jan. 6 denied without prejudice the parties’ joint stipulation that “upon affirmance of the District Court’s decision that does not reduce the amount of the judgment” the defendants would pay $7,108,254.82 in attorney fees and $449,437.86 in costs plus interest in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action where labor union members whose early retirement benefits were stopped or denied because of non-boilermaker work largely prevailed following a bench trial.

  • January 07, 2026

    6th Circuit Vacates Ruling Awarding Fees For Attorneys, Expert Witnesses

    CINCINNATI — Resolving cross-appeals, the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals concluded that the trial court “abused its discretion in disallowing, as a matter of law, any fees for work performed in separate proceedings and in awarding expert witness fees under” Title 42 U.S. Code Section 1988(c) in a long-running inverse condemnation case that the owner of an industrial property filed against the city of Detroit.

  • January 06, 2026

    $150M Settlement Approved In Consolidated Action Over Defective EV Battery

    DETROIT — A federal judge in Michigan has granted final approval to a $150 million settlement that will resolve consolidated litigation alleging that the batteries in Chevrolet Bolt electronic vehicles for model years 2017 to 2022 had a defect that allowed them to overheat, finding that “the settlement is fair, adequate, and reasonable; the attorneys’ fees and expense reimbursement and service awards are reasonable; and the settlement is in the best interest of the class as a whole.”

  • January 06, 2026

    Default Judgment Recommended Against Pharmacy In FCA ‘Fraudulent’ Prescription Row

    BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A New York federal magistrate judge issued a report and recommendation advising entering default judgment against a pharmacy in a relator’s qui tam suit accusing the pharmacy of violating the federal False Claims Act (FCA) and related New York state law by participating in a “massive fraudulent prescription billing scheme” regarding the submission of false claims to government insurers, finding that the relator “has alleged all of the elements of a plausible claim under the FCA” against the pharmacy, which has failed to appear.

  • January 06, 2026

    6th Circuit Affirms Fees To Morissette In Frivolous IP Claim Suit

    CINCINNATI — A Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a Michigan federal judge’s order that a pro se plaintiff-appellant must pay singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette and a related entity more than $3,000 in attorney fees and costs, finding that the appellant abandoned his challenge to attorney fees and failed to show that he should be allowed to amend his complaint accusing Morissette of stealing the songs on her record “Jagged Little Pill” from him.

  • January 05, 2026

    9th Circuit Grants Appellate Attorney Fees In Supplement Counterfeiting Row

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals granted a motion from a supplement maker and its founder for appellate attorney fees against defendant-appellant entities that were accused of counterfeiting the appellees’ registered trademark; in October, the panel affirmed a California federal judge’s entry of $4 million judgment and award of nearly $5.3 million in attorney fees after the judge entered default judgment against the defendant-appellants.

  • January 02, 2026

    5th Circuit: No New Fees In Fight Over Band’s Music Uploaded To YouTube

    NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed in full a Texas federal judge’s decision in a dispute over copyrights associated with a band from Mexico, seeing no abuse of discretion in the judge’s decision to deny posttrial attorney fees beyond a jury’s $50,000 award for a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

  • December 31, 2025

    2nd Circuit Denies Rehearing After Ruling On Attorney Fees In Termination Case

    NEW YORK — The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for panel rehearing and rehearing en banc filed by an employee after the appellate panel issued a ruling on a reduction of attorney fees for the employee’s counsel and remanded for recalculation in a wrongful termination case.

  • December 29, 2025

    10th Circuit Won’t Rehear Presuit Costs And Fees Case Concerning LTD Benefits

    DENVER — In an order issued without explanation nearly five months after the appellant filed a petition for panel rehearing that drew no response from the other party in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act case, the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals declined to revisit its rejection of a bid to make a long-term disability (LTD) insurer pay attorney fees and other costs for an administrative appeal that got benefits reinstated.

  • December 23, 2025

    Court Confirms $765K Attorney Fees Award Against Chinese Law Firm’s Client

    SEATTLE — A Washington federal judge on Dec. 22 granted a Chinese law firm’s petition to confirm a Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration (SCIA) award worth more than $765,000 in unpaid attorney fees against the firm’s former client, who is now residing in Washington state.

  • December 23, 2025

    Walmart Wins $623K Attorney Fee Sanction Against Plaintiff In Avocado Oil Case

    LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge awarded Walmart Inc. more than $623,000 in attorney fees against two attorneys as sanction for bringing a frivolous class action based on the plaintiff’s alleged in-store purchase of Walmart avocado oil, which after multiple rulings including a grant of class certification was revealed to have been made online and therefore was subject to a binding arbitration agreement.

  • December 23, 2025

    Delaware Supreme Court Finds Rescission Of Musk’s Tesla $56B Pay Package Improper

    DOVER, Del. — The Supreme Court of Delaware, sitting en banc¸ reversed a lower court’s rescission of Elon Musk’s $56 billion pay package in a shareholder’s derivative suit, finding that rescission was an improper remedy because Musk couldn’t be restored to the status quo ante.

  • December 19, 2025

    $8M ESOP Settlement That Followed Effective Vindication Ruling Wins Final OK

    WILMINGTON, Del. — One of the first Employee Retirement Income Security Act cases in which a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals applied the “effective vindication” doctrine in declining to compel individual arbitration has been resolved by an $8 million class settlement that the plaintiff said will yield average net distributions of more than $8,500 per class member; the suit filed in a Delaware federal court challenged a 2016 employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) transaction.

  • December 19, 2025

    Split Louisiana Supreme Court Denies Attorney Fee Challenge In Defamation Case

    NEW ORLEANS — A divided Louisiana Supreme Court denied an attorney’s application for writ of certiorari filed after she was ordered to pay additional attorney fees to a former client and his new attorney when she was unsuccessful in appealing a ruling against her in her defamation suit; the dissenting high court justices opined that the application should have been granted to consider additional attorney fees for the client.

  • December 19, 2025

    5th Circuit Reverses Fee Award Because NFL Disability Claimant Didn’t Succeed

    NEW ORLEANS — Concluding that favorable factual findings are “a moral victory . . . insufficient to justify an award of attorney’s fees” and that the claimant here ultimately obtained no legal relief, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Dec. 18 reversed an award of more than $1.25 million to a former National Football League player who sued for a higher level of disability benefits than he was awarded, prevailed after a bench trial and then saw that favorable ruling reversed in a previous appeal.

  • December 18, 2025

    Class Counsel Seeks 5% Attorney Fee Award In ACA Class Action

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Class counsel filed a reply brief in further support of their request for an attorney fee award of 5% of settlement classes’ net in a risk-corridor payment class action under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), arguing that the fee would not result in an “unjustified windfall.”

  • December 17, 2025

    Supreme Court Won’t Consider Plaintiffs’ Sanctions In Tape Patent Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court denied an inventor and his company’s petition for a writ of certiorari and will not consider whether the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals erred in affirming an Ohio federal judge’s entry of sanctions against the petitioners.

  • December 17, 2025

    Vermont Supreme Court Affirms Attorney Fee Award In Abusive Litigation Suit

    MONTPELIER, Vt. — A trial court was not obligated to take into account a man’s financial circumstances in awarding his ex-wife attorney fees against him for engaging in abusive litigation against her following their divorce as the fees were awarded pursuant to a Vermont statute governing abusive litigation and not as “suit money” in the divorce proceeding, the Vermont Supreme Court ruled, affirming the trial court’s fee award.

  • December 16, 2025

    Panel Affirms Discovery Sanctions, Attorney Fees Award In Divorce Proceeding

    SANTA ANA, Calif. — A trial court did not abuse its discretion in granting a California woman’s motions for sanctions and an award of need-based attorney fees against her ex-husband, a California appellate panel ruled, finding that his repeated failure to comply with discovery requests and orders, as well as a disparity in the divorced couple’s respective financial situations, made the awards “fair, reasonable and appropriate.”

  • December 16, 2025

    Indiana Panel Affirms $31K Attorney Fee, Contempt Order In Dissolution Dispute

    INDIANAPOLIS — An Indiana appellate court affirmed a lower court order requiring a husband to pay $31,000 in attorney fees and finding him in contempt of a settlement agreement related to a marriage dissolution petition, finding that because the lower court determined that the husband violated certain portions of the settlement agreement, the appellate court “cannot say” the lower court abused its discretion.

  • December 16, 2025

    Maine Supreme Court Holds Landlord Owes Attorney Fees, As Well As $6,000 Judgment

    BANGOR, Maine — A $6,000 cap on small claims court judgments does not apply to a separate award of attorney fees and litigation costs, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled, affirming two lower court judgments against a landlord who was found liable for withholding former tenants’ security deposit.

  • December 15, 2025

    Class Members Get Up To $75,000 Apiece In Final Proton Beam Settlement

    BOSTON — A Massachusetts federal judge on Dec. 12 gave final approval to a claims-made class settlement over proton beam therapy (PBT or PBRT) that is capped at $6.75 million but at last report would result in distributions of less than $1.65 million because just 22 claims were submitted; in a different order issued the same day, the judge granted a separate $2 million for class counsel.

  • December 15, 2025

    $45K Attorney Fee Sanction Against Pro Se Litigant In Home Sale Case Affirmed

    PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania appellate court affirmed an order requiring a pro se litigant to pay more than $45,000 in attorney fees after she brought vexatious litigation against a couple who purchased the litigant’s late mother’s former home, writing that the litigant repeatedly brought frivolous actions raising issues that had already been resolved by the court.