A recent Law.com story by Brad Kutner, “Attorney Push Back on Proposed Camp Lejeune Act Attorney Fee Cap,” reports that bipartisan efforts in both the House and Senate aim to add a cap to attorneys fees on lawsuits linked to exposure to toxic chemicals at a North Carolina marine base.  But attorneys who are already working with clients to get some of the $6.1 billion made available via legislation passed last summer say the suggested caps are unreasonably low and the market will better police the process. 

“Passing the Camp Lejeune Justice Act was an important step toward providing long denied justice for veterans, their families, and civilian workers,” said Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-New York, when he announced the Protect Access to Justice for Veterans Act earlier this year.  He said “bad actors” looking to take advantage of elderly vets were to blame for the bill. 

The Camp Lejeune Justice Act signed by President Joe Biden in August, nixed the statute of limitations on claims related to hazardous chemical and water exposure at the North Carolina marine base from the 1950s until the late 80s.  It defined the illnesses that can be covered and superseded the Feres doctrine, which would otherwise preclude suits from military personnel against the government.  But it also lacked any cap on attorneys fees, an issue that has stirred debate among lawyers as much as elected officials.  

Nadler’s effort would cap attorneys fees between 17 and 33%, depending on the services and timeline for completion of a claim.  Another effort sponsored by Republicans in the Senate, the Protect Camp Lejeune VETS Act, caps fees at 12 or 17%.  “In my eight years in the U.S. Senate, there are few issues I’ve been involved with that more desperately cry out for a just resolution,” said Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, about his effort, which includes Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, among its co-sponsors.  

Efforts to limit fees were also submitted last fall after the act was signed, but they failed to gain traction before the end of the 117th Congress.  Now in the 118th congressional session, both bills have only been introduced, but that’s enough for lawyers working in the space to start speaking up.  “These are individual cases; every one is unique,” said Baird Mandalas Brockstedt Federico & Cardea partner Philip Federico in a phone interview, about the effort his firm has already put in for the clients he’s representing in Camp Lejeune claims.

But, as Federico and other attorneys pointed out, the individual nature of every claimant and the law’s language precluding class action claims will require a lot of work.  “We prepare as though we’re trying the cases,” said Beasley Allen principal Rhon Jones. His firm, along with vet disability firm Bergmann & Moore, are representing over 10,000 vets in claims under the act.  Many are still in the administrative process, and he’s still weighing his options for those who may now file suit. 

“There’s a lot of unknowns there.  We want to be prepared to represent our clients,” he said.  Notably the bill created an administrative process, managed by the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps, for vets to file claims with before going to court.  But as the six-month window for responses has come to an end for the earliest filers, the lawsuits have started steaming in.

According to a Court Listener search, at least 47 such suits have been filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, where all such complaints must be filed.  But the number of claims could skyrocket, with hundreds of thousands of people possibly impacted, as the administrative process has so far yielded only denials for the lawyers the National Law Journal spoke to. 

In a statement, Patricia Babb, public affairs officer for the Office of the Judge Advocate General of the Navy. said the office intaking claims was “closely monitoring the number of CLJA claims it receives each week, and also continually assessing its adjudication procedures.”  When asked whether any administrative claims had received payouts yet, she said no claims had “been fully adjudicated.”

As for concerns about resources to address the demand, a theory posited by Federico, Babb said the office was “taking appropriate actions to address staffing issues … when needed.”  Steven German, managing partner with Scout Law firm, has about 160 clients with Camp Lejeune claims. He’s among those who’ve yet to see an approved administrative claim.  But even before that administrative process starts, German said his firm is putting in work that requires reasonable compensation. 

“Lots of victims are dead, so you’re working with family members.  And it gets trickery when you get into the succession of the victim,” German said.  He also said finding medical records, some destroyed after 10 years, can be another challenge.  “It’s harder than people think, and these are the things that keep me up at night,” he said. 

German also argued that concerns about unreasonable attorneys fees are overblown.  Liens, hospital bills, Medicaid-owed funds and reimbursement claims such as workers’ compensation claims and veterans disability claims, can all get taken out from any settlement.  “The government gets all their money back,” he said.  “And the liens come off the top.” 

So what may start as a 40% fee on $60,000 win, $24,000, turns into $12,000 just as quickly.  “That’s a big haircut,” he said, also noting language in the bill can cause attorneys to forfeit up to one-third in fees.. 

Federico also expressed concern about reportedly high fees: “My father was an attorney and he always said ‘don’t tell me what you made, tell me what you ended up with,’” he said. To that end he’s promised to cap his firm’s handling of these cases at 25%, but he called the GOP-led effort to cap fees well below that “grossly unfair.”

One solution Federico offered was court intervention via a mediation process.  Once the court starts taking in complaints, a judge can make a matrix for awards and injuries and start sorting claims.  “We don’t need to take a decade to have this play out,” he said of the alternative.  Jones, meanwhile, is hoping once suits start rolling the system will work itself out. With his thousands of clients, he’s got plenty of work to do..  “We are in the process of preparing a lot of lawsuits,” he said.

A recent Law 360 story by Hanna Albarazi, “9th Circ. Slams ‘Abusive’ ADA Suits in Upholding Atty Fee Cut” reports that a Ninth Circuit panel on upheld a decision to slash attorney fees in an Americans with Disabilities Act lawsuit over a lack of accessible parking, suggesting in a scathing published opinion that the suit amounted to "abusive ADA litigation" by a serial litigant.  The circuit panel held that a California federal judge had not abused his discretion in reducing the attorney fees in an open-and-shut case over a lack of accessible parking spaces at a Los Angeles County shopping center, but the panel also used its opinion as an opportunity to rail against a perceived blight caused by serial ADA plaintiffs.

"The ADA satisfied the need for meaningful legislation for the protection of individuals with disabilities; however, one of the unforeseen consequences of this statute was the widespread abuse taking form due to the actions of serial ADA plaintiffs," wrote U.S. Circuit Judge Milan D. Smith Jr., who penned the unanimous opinion.  Smith wrote that the ability to recover attorney fees in ADA cases "has given rise to a wave of 'get-money quick' lawsuits brought by a small number of professional, serial plaintiffs."

However, enforcement of the ADA falls on persons with disabilities.  As a result, disabilities rights advocates frequently contend that bringing suit against violators increases accessibility.  Plaintiff James Shayler, who has physical disabilities that make walking and standing difficult, sued property owner 1310 PCH LLC in California federal court in November 2020, claiming its property in Hermosa Beach was in violation of the ADA and California's Unruh Civil Rights Act.

Shayler's suit went largely uncontested, resulting in summary judgment in his favor on the ADA claim and an award of injunctive relief. The court, however, declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the Unruh Act.  Shayler then moved for over $34,000 in attorney fees and costs.

But U.S. District Judge George H. Wu concluded that the hourly rates and the time spent by his attorneys on the case were unreasonable given that the nature of the legal work was routine and because there had been a lack of meaningful opposition by the defendant.  Judge Wu adopted a $300 per hour blended billing rate for the work performed by Shayler's four attorneys and reduced the overall fee total by 65%.  In September 2021, Judge Wu ultimately awarded just under $10,000 in attorney fees and costs to Shayler.

Shayler quickly appealed the award, arguing that the downward reduction was unjustified.  The appellate panel affirmed the lower court's ruling.  "Given the repetitive nature of high-frequency ADA litigation, there was nothing irrational about the district court's conclusions that, in effect, much of the work here could have been performed by junior associates or even paralegals, or that much of the motion practice in the case was superfluous," Judge Smith wrote.

Judge Smith said the district court's choice of a $300 per hour blended billing rate was largely based on its finding that this was "a run-of-the-mill repeat-player ADA case lacking in legal, factual, or procedural complexity."  The district court cited decisions determining that serial ADA litigation, such as Shayler's, does not involve particularly complex work justifying partner-level billing rates, the panel said.  "A hallmark of abusive ADA litigation is the use of form complaints containing a multitude of boilerplate allegations of varying merit," the panel wrote.

A recent Law 360 story by Caleb Drickey, “7th Circ. Upholds Teacher’s Win In FMLA Suit” reports that the Seventh Circuit upheld a pair of lower courts' decisions to declare that a Wisconsin governmental entity violated the Family and Medical Leave Act by de facto demoting a concussed teacher, and to grant her attorney fees for her bench trial victory.  In a published opinion, a three-judge panel ruled that the lower court was within its authority to issue a damages-free declaration that the Cooperative Educational Service Agency 5 violated the FMLA by taking away teacher Sarah Simon's work responsibilities after she returned from medical leave. The panel further held that the law mandated the payment of attorney fees in the case of a judgment in favor of workers.

"If this case involved an accomplished neurosurgeon returning from leave to a position that required only tracking the hospital's inventory, we doubt that anyone would question whether the surgeon suffered prejudice," U.S. Circuit Judge Thomas Kirsch said on behalf of the panel. "Simon … suffered harm for which the FMLA provides a remedy."

The opinion stems from the Cooperative's retraction of Simon's job responsibilities after she returned to work in the wake of a workplace concussion.  Although the Cooperative, which provides staff and equipment to 35 school districts in the state, maintained Simon's previous salary, a district court found that Simon's effective demotion to a support staffer prejudiced her, and it granted her a declaratory judgment and roughly $60,000 in attorney fees after a bench trial.

The panel ruled that a court-issued declaration of FMLA violations absent any monetary damages or injunctions to re-hire Simon, who has since taken another job, was within scope of the relief promised by the law.  The FMLA authorized courts to dispense "equitable relief," an undefined term that courts have interpreted to encompass binding orders to hire or promote workers.

The authority to grant declaratory judgments, the panel therefore concluded, could reasonably be inferred.  "It would make little sense for the FMLA to permit courts to grant these heavy-handed remedies yet bar them from using a lighter touch through entry of a declaratory judgment," the panel held.

The panel also affirmed the lower court's finding that the Cooperative prejudiced and harmed Simon even without suffering any cuts to her pay or benefits.  Citing the U.S. Supreme Court's 2002 decision in Ragsdale v. Wolverine World Wide Inc. , the panel held that the demotion of workers returning from medical leave to positions for which they were overly qualified caused injury.

The Commission's remission of Simon's ability to plan lessons and lead classes, the panel therefore concluded, unfairly created a gap in her resume, prejudiced her, and put her employer on the hook for remedies including declaratory judgments and the payment of attorney fees.

The panel affirmed the lower court's separate order of a $59,773.62 attorney fee bill, too.  That fee bill was not an improper imposition of punitive damages, the panel ruled, but was required by the text of the FMLA in the case of a judgment in favor of workers.  "The district judge merely applied the FMLA as written, which expressly requires attorney's fees after a judgment entered in the plaintiff's favor," the panel held.

A recent Law 360 story by Faith Williams, “Wildlife Org. Attys Seek $1.2M Fees in Marbled Murrelet Fight” reports that counsel who represented two Oregon wildlife organizations in a suit seeking to stop a timber company from cutting down trees in the habitat of a threatened seabird asked a federal judge to award them $1.2 million in attorney fees.  According to the motion filed in Oregon federal court, Cascadia Wildlands, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Audubon Society of Portland accumulated about $1.2 million in costs and fees based on detailed records from seven attorneys over an eight-year period.  However, the attorneys asked the court not to make a decision on the motion at this time, as the parties are continuing settlement discussions.

In June, U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken ruled in favor of the wildlife organizations, saying Scott Timber Co.'s "Benson Snake" logging operation would harm the marbled murrelet, a threatened species since 1992, and would constitute an unlawful "take."  The organizations' lead counsel, Daniel Kruse of Kruse & Saint Marie Attorneys at Law, has an hourly rate of $485.

Supporting counsel Charles Tebbutt of the Law Offices of Charles M. Tebbutt PC has an hourly rate of $650, while Daniel Snyder and Parker Jones of the same office have hourly rates of $425 and $250, respectively.  Meanwhile, Nicholas Cady, Cascadia Wildlands in-house counsel, receives $425 an hour.  Tanya Sanerib of the Center for Biological Diversity's hourly rate is $500, and Brian Segee of the same office receives $515 an hour.

The motion says the organizations' attorneys spent around 2,600 hours on the case including submitting required paperwork, preparing for trial and successfully litigating the case.  Judge Aiken said in his ruling the plaintiffs are entitled to reasonable attorney fees and costs.

According to the motion, the court is to adjust hourly rates based on inflation, which would increase each hourly rate by $50 to $100. Environmental litigation has also been recognized in Oregon federal court as a practice that requires specific knowledge, justifying increased rates.  Kruse has 16 years of experience as an environmental litigator and specific experience in suits pertaining to the conservation of marbled murrelets, the motion said.

A recent Law 360 story by Matthew Santoni, “Behrend Law Group Denied Fee Bid in School Mask Dispute” reports that a group of parents who sued to make a Pittsburgh-area school district keep its mask mandate were not the "prevailing party" for the purpose of awarding Behrend Law Group attorney fees just because the Third Circuit had temporarily restored the mask order, a Pennsylvania federal judge ruled.  U.S. District Judge William S. Stickman IV said he had denied the parents a temporary restraining order on the district, and they had never argued their case on the merits on appeal, so a temporary order from a single Third Circuit judge keeping the masks on until the case was dismissed was not the same as a win – and didn't merit nearly $109,000 in fees and costs that the parents' attorneys sought from the Upper St. Clair School District.

"The interim relief granted by the Third Circuit to maintain the status quo pending appeal does not constitute relief on the merits and does not render plaintiffs prevailing parties," Judge Stickman wrote.  "Plaintiffs had the burden of establishing their right to relief as prevailing parties, and the court has determined that they failed to do so.  Attorney fees are, therefore, not available."

Attorneys Ken Behrend and Kevin Miller had represented a group of parents of children with disabilities who claimed in January that the school district's decision to make masks optional while COVID-19 was still spreading would put their children at risk.  The school district, the parents claimed, had violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by forcing them to choose between risking infection and being shunted back into online learning.

Judge Stickman had denied the parents' request for an injunction, ruling that they were unlikely to succeed on the merits of their ADA claim.  But when they appealed to the Third Circuit later in January, U.S. Circuit Judge Thomas L. Ambro issued an order that temporarily granted the parents' request to keep the district's mask mandate while the case was pending.

Briefs were submitted, and the case was set for argument in March along with a similar suit from the North Allegheny School District, where a different judge had granted another group of parents' request for an injunction keeping masks.  But before the case was argued, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention issued new guidance for measuring the level of the pandemic's spread and the necessity of masks, such that the Third Circuit declared the appeals moot.

When Behrend and Miller argued that the Third Circuit had granted the relief their clients wanted and they were entitled to fees, the school district countered that he hadn't actually gotten a ruling on the merits and therefore hadn't "prevailed." Judge Stickman agreed.  In other cases, the Third Circuit had denied fees to parties that had gotten temporary restraining orders and rulings that they had a likelihood of success on the merits, but the parents in Upper St. Clair hadn't even gotten that much, Judge Stickman said.  The Third Circuit's order wasn't enough, either, he said.

"The relief afforded to plaintiffs was not merits-based," Judge Stickman wrote.  "Here the Third Circuit's entry of a temporary emergency injunction was specifically viewed by that court as temporary.  Moreover, it did not even attempt to discuss and determine the substantive issues raised by the parties -- much less express a determination that plaintiffs had satisfied their burden to demonstrate that injunctive relief was warranted."

Without prevailing on the merits, the parents and Behrend could not seek to make the school district pay their attorney fees and were left to cover their own costs, the judge said.

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