Attorney Fees
3rd Circuit OKs $567M Legal Bill for Work By 72 Firms on Fen-Phen Case
A $567 million fee awarded by a federal district judge for 350,000 hours of legal work logged by 72 law firms in Fen-Phen diet drug litigation has been approved by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Rejecting arguments over the cost to plaintiffs who opted out of the complex diet-drug litigation and the process by which the chief judge of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania determined the legal bill, a three-judge appellate panel found it to be reasonable under the circumstances, reports the Legal Intelligencer in an article reprinted in New York Lawyer (reg. req.).
“The amount of the award, though extraordinarily large, is not excessive in this extraordinary case,” writes U.S. Circuit Judge Kent Jordan in the majority opinion.
