A recent Law 360 story by Jonathan Capriel, “Honda Wins Bid to Slash Atty Fees in Valve Defect Suit”, reports that the counsel behind the $1.4 million valve defect jury verdict for Honda drivers that the automaker called an "abject failure" does not deserve $5.6 million in fees and costs, a California federal judge has ruled, approving only $1.5 million.  U.S. District Judge William Alsup dismissed Honda's arguments that fees and costs should be denied altogether because the ultimate almost $1.4 million class counsel got from the jury was a "pittance" compared to what they were seeking, saying that "that reasoning is inapplicable here, where a damages award was stipulated to and entirely consistent with the theory of liability."

"The jury found Honda liable on the Illinois claim, so the question is how fees and costs should be adjusted relative to damages, and not whether there should be fees and costs at all," Judge Alsup said.  Since the Illinois claims are what counsel prevailed on, Judge Alsup said Illinois law is what controls in this case.  Since counsel estimated 2,218.30 hours of work for trial preparation and trial itself and that went for both California and Illinois classes, Judge Alsup slashed the hours that went into the lodestar by 30%.

"This results in 1,552.81 hours of work for $1,247,957.38 of lodestar fees," he said.  "Adding back in the pre-trial amount this order finds reasonable and the amount asserted for post-trial motions, this order finds a lodestar of 1,934.64 attorney hours for a total of $1,508,841.10."  The motion for fees was filed in September by Greenstone Law APC and Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP and stated they spent three years litigating this case, but Honda says much of that work was on claims that never got off the ground.