A recent Law 360 story by Ryan Boyson, “’Joint Juice’ Attys Get $8M in Fees For $12.8M False Ad Suit”, reports that three plaintiffs firms have been awarded roughly $8 million in fees and costs for years of work that led to a $12.8 million false advertising judgment against Premier Nutrition over its Joint Juice supplement, after a California federal judge dismissed criticisms that those fees were "bloated and unreasonable."  In an eight-page order, U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg granted the fee request, filed by attorneys from Blood Hurst & O'Reardon LLP, Lynch Carpenter LLP and Iredale & Yoo APC.

The lion's share of the roughly $8 million in total fees and costs awarded went to Blood Hurst, which began laying the groundwork for the false advertising class action against Premier back in 2012.  Judge Seeborg shaved the total award down by about $300,000, after the attorneys had originally sought roughly $8.3 million.  But he didn't come close to adopting the roughly $2.4 million fee award sought by Premier, which savaged Blood Hurst and Lynch Carpenter's billing practices as "bloated and unreasonable" and "riddled with inefficiencies" and "extravagant expenses."

"None of these arguments are particularly potent," Judge Seeborg said.  "The hours of work submitted by plaintiff's counsel and the structure of their practice appear reasonable, and in any event their professional judgment in these areas is entitled to deference."  "The fact that plaintiff's counsel has prosecuted this case for a decade without receiving compensation clearly militates in favor of exercising" the court's broad discretion on how to compensate prevailing parties," Judge Seeborg added.

Blood Hurst also has nine other certified class actions pending against Premier in various states, all claiming that the Post Holdings Inc. unit promoted its "Joint Juice" product as an effective joint health remedy, despite scientific studies on the product's active ingredient, glucosamine, finding it has no impact on joint health whatsoever, according to court documents.

Judge Seeborg allowed Blood Hurst to submit fees and costs for precursor litigation that made the current case — Mary Beth Montera v. Premier Nutrition Corp. — possible.  But he cautioned that if the firm prevails in the other Joint Juice class actions, it won't be allowed to bill for those hours again.  "It should go without saying ... that plaintiff's counsel will not be entitled to receive duplicative recovery should any of the other related cases be litigated successfully," Judge Seeborg said.

In contesting the class attorney fee request, Premier had contended that most of the pre-2021 work the attorneys were billing for had little to do with the Montera case specifically, and therefore should be denied.  But in the order, Judge Seeborg begged to differ.  "Before December 2016, plaintiff's counsel had already undertaken a substantial amount of work that facilitated a successful outcome in Montera," he wrote.