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Ohio Supreme Court Cuts $4M in Fees; Redefines Lodestar

March 26, 2020 | Posted in : Contingency Fees / POF, Fee Award Factors, Fee Calculation Method, Fee Issues on Appeal, Fee Jurisprudence, Fee Reduction, Lodestar, Prevailing Party Issues

A recent Bloomberg Law story by Alex Ebert, “$4M Attorney Fee Award Cut in Half by Ohio High Court,” reports that a nearly $4 million payday for a prevailing group of attorneys was lopped in half by the Ohio Supreme Court, which ruled an “enhancement” that doubled the winning lawyers’ fees went too far.  Ohio’s lodestar calculation, the method for determining a reasonable attorneys fee, already factors in the complexity and time of litigation, and the expertise of the attorneys involved, the court said in its opinion issued.

A state trial and appellate court were wrong to look to these factors and double the more than $1.99 million in attorneys fees awarded to Phoenix Lighting Group LLC’s lawyers, the high court said.  The legal team won the lighting business a $5,518,335 judgment following years of litigation over claims that its value was reduced by unlawful actions by a competitor, Genlyte Thomas Group LLC, dating back to incidents that occurred in 2009.

“Today’s decision communicates the Ohio Supreme Court’s desire to limit an attorney’s ability to receive an enhancement in attorney fees in cases where his or her performance was exceptional or where the attorney, for the best interest of the client, took on a case with exceptional risk,” Phoenix Lighting Group’s attorney Jeffrey Witschey, a partner with Akron-based Witschey Witschey & and Firestine Co., LPA, said in an email.

“The danger with the decision is the potential chilling effect on attorneys taking cases for clients that are unable to financially support long legal battles with wealthier opponents,” he said.  The court made the “right decision and established appropriate limitations that will make enhancements rare in Ohio and require the rare enhancement to be based on objective evidence that is reviewable on appeal,” Genlyte Thomas Group’s attorney Benjamin Sasse, a partner in Tucker Ellis LLP’s Cleveland office, said in an email.

The court shouldn’t increase the fees just because the payoff took a long time, the justices said.  “Enhancements to the lodestar should be granted rarely and are appropriate when an attorney produces objective and specific evidence that an enhancement of the lodestar is necessary to account for a factor not already subsumed in the lodestar calculation,” Justice Melody Stewart wrote in the majority opinion signed by seven justices.

Justice Sharon Kennedy issued a concurring opinion that agreed with Stewart but said trial courts must weigh each reasonable-fee factor individually, and not believe all factors are bound-up perfectly in the lodestar analysis.  Justice Patrick Fischer also a separate concurring opinion saying that courts must also be mindful of the “time value of money” in cases that take years to resolve.  The underlying issues in this matter began in 2004.  “Prevailing plaintiffs who have paid their attorneys over the course of the lawsuit and attorneys working on a contingent-fee basis have been deprived of the use of their money throughout the lawsuit,” Fischer said in his concurrence.