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$200M Fee Request in Massive Price Fixing Case

September 25, 2015 | Posted in : Contingency Fees / POF, Expenses / Costs, Fee Allocation / Fee Apportionment, Fee Award Factors, Fee Request, Lodestar

A recent The Record story, “Plaintiffs Team Seeks $200 Million Payday in Price-Fixing Case,” reports that plaintiffs lawyers with Trump Alioto & Prescott have requested $192 million in fees for their work settling a massive antitrust case over the price of cathode ray tubes.  The fee request represents one-third of the $577 million settlement fund, which lead counsel lauded as “one of the largest recoveries on behalf of indirect purchasers.”

The lawyers also asked to be reimbursed for about $3 million in litigation expenses and to distribute $450,000 in incentive awards among the lead plaintiffs, according to the fee request filed in the Northern District of California.

The deals resolve claims that defendants conspired between 1995 and 2007 to fix the prices of cathode ray tubes used in computers and TV monitors.  Lead counsel with Trump Alioto proposed dividing the fee award among 48 other firms that also put hours into the case, including Kirby McInerney; Zelle, Hoffmann Voelbel Mason & Gette; and Straus & Boies.

Lawyers with Trump Alioto pointed out the recovery goes directly into the pockets of class members—there will be no refund to the defendants or cy pres distribution, and claimants won’t be paid with vouchers or coupons.  They also emphasized the difficulties and risks of the case, which required lawyers to travel the world tracking down evidence of the 20-year old conspiracy.  The proposed fee award equates to a 2.3 multiplier of plaintiffs counsel lodestar.