A court awarded $45,000 in attorney’s fees in an ERISA case in which the claimant recovered just $650.  In Tomasko v. Ira H. Weinstock, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled that attorney fees need not be proportional to the amount of the judgment in order to be reasonable.  Furthermore, the court observed, a considerable portion of the fees awarded in this case were incurred due to the employer’s choice to fight “tooth and nail” despite the minimal stakes involved. (Both parties were lawyers whose dispute began when one left the other’s employment to form his own practice.)  The court conceded that where an ERISA claimant achieves only a partial victory on the merits (as in this case), the attorney fee award must be reduced accordingly.  However, the record indicated that the district court did make the necessary reductions.