Judge considers attorney fees request in $425M Google privacy class action
A California federal judge has hesitated ruling on a motion requesting over $146 million in attorney fees in a $425 million Google privacy class action. (Image from Shutterstock)
A California federal judge hesitated ruling on a motion requesting over $146 million in attorney fees in a $425 million Google privacy class action Thursday, leaving the possibility for a considerable award for counsel representing nearly 100 million class members in the case.
According to U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg, “It is an understandable, reasonable request that recognizes the very good work done by the plaintiff side. It is certainly going to be within the realm of what you requested.” Some 300 objections about the high fee request arose from class members.
Plaintiffs’ counsel David Boies of Boies Schiller and Flexner requested $146 million in attorney fees—one-third of the $440 million common fund, including interest—and $12 million in litigation costs, according to coverage on CourthouseNews.com.
“The very nature of a class action is that you have individuals who had such a small amount at issue, they couldn’t afford to litigate individually to hold the defendant accountable,” Boies said at Thursday’s hearing. “What a class action does is it does give some sort of monetary compensation to the class, but more importantly, it holds the defendant accountable.”
Last September, a federal jury ordered Google to pay $425 million in compensatory damages to a class of 100 million users for privacy violation. The lead plaintiff was Anibal Rodriguez who said the platform continued to collect app data after telling users they could disable tracking. The jury did not award additional damages, since Google did not violate the California Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud.
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