Business Development

2 lawyers who rejected $9.5M attorney fee in Prempro case will get $21.8M

Two lead lawyers in long-running litigation over Pfizer’s Inc.’s Prempro menopause drug have more than doubled their own payout by challenging a plan to allocate them less than $10 million of a $62 million common-benefit fund for attorney fees. Federal court filings in Little Rock, Arkansas, say fellow plaintiffs lawyers…

Jul 23, 2014 8:20 PM CDT

Plaintiffs lawyers fight ‘loser-pays’ bylaw adopted in middle of shareholder suit

A shareholder suit over $2.5 million in bonuses paid to executives of a pharmaceutical company is the latest battleground in an ongoing fight over a new corporate “loser-pays” bylaw that may have gotten a green light from the Delaware Supreme Court earlier this year. The bylaw at issue in the…

Jul 22, 2014 4:25 PM CDT

PayPal to refund donations made for dad’s defense in murder case over son’s hot-car death

An online efforts to raise funds for the legal defense of a Georgia father charged in a controversial murder case over the death of his young son in a hot car has been suspended, and the $22,000 already donated will be refunded. A PayPal spokeswoman told the Associated Press it…

Jul 11, 2014 4:14 PM CDT

When letting a bill go unpaid can be good for business

Scott Saul, a Miami criminal defense attorney, has had his share of clients skip out on their bills. But rather than send threatening letters, hire a collection agency or sue for the unpaid balance, Saul chalks up the loss. Taking a hit rather than chasing the money, Saul says, is…

Jul 1, 2014 8:20 AM CDT

Samsung and Quinn Emanuel must pay $2M for revealing ‘attorneys’ eyes only’ info, judge rules

A major law firm and its client must pay a patent litigation opponent more than $2 million in legal fees and costs, a federal judge in California has ruled. The award covers the expense of litigating a sanctions motion and discovery dispute over the revelation of “attorneys’ eyes only” information…

Jun 24, 2014 6:10 PM CDT

Federal court clerk, 2 techs create e-billing system to speed payment to defense lawyers nationwide

A new computerized billing system expected to speed payment to indigent defense lawyers is being adopted at federal courthouses throughout the country thanks to a chief deputy clerk and two technicians at the federal courthouse in Las Vegas. Thinking there had to be a better way than the cumbersome manual…

Jun 24, 2014 3:25 PM CDT

Judge rejects ‘absurd’ claim by ex-clients, awards $500K in legal fees, blasts new counsel

A Pennsylvania law firm was, by contract, entitled to a $500,000 legal fee for representing the parents of a therapist killed in a 2012 shooting rampage, in a lawsuit against a psychiatric hospital. But Farrell & Reisinger agreed to take $350,000, after the case settled the same year for $1.5…

Jun 24, 2014 2:45 PM CDT

LA to pay $215K to black man ejected and cited after wearing Ku Klux Klan hood to public meeting

The city of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $215,000 to a man who was kicked out of a governmental meeting in 2011 after wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood and a T-shirt with a racial slur and being cited for disturbing a public assembly. Although the case against Michael…

Jun 16, 2014 6:50 PM CDT

New bill could nix top Delaware court’s OK of loser-pays rule for attorney fees in corporate cases

With unusual speed, a bill was drafted by Delaware lawyers and introduced in the state legislature that could negate a state supreme court ruling last month approving a corporate fee-shifting bylaw affecting shareholder litigation. The bylaw required losing plaintiffs to cover the company’s attorney fees and costs for corporate litigation…

Jun 10, 2014 5:45 PM CDT

Top NY court to hear arguments on unfinished-business claims concerning failed law firms

When a law firm fails, is its unfinished business property that can be distributed by a bankruptcy trustee? That is the question on which New York’s highest court will hear arguments Wednesday, at the request of a federal appeals court, the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) reports. After two federal…

Jun 2, 2014 4:50 PM CDT

Delaware decision could spur fee-shifting bylaws, putting a damper on shareholder suits

The Delaware Supreme Court has upheld a fee-shifting provision in a corporate bylaw that might be adopted by other corporations to make shareholder suits more risky. The May 8 decision (PDF) addressed a federal court’s certified questions about a bylaw adopted by a private company that shifts attorney fees and…

May 20, 2014 10:45 AM CDT

In rare criminal case award, government must pay record $580K to defense lawyers over mistrial

In a ruling seldom seen in a criminal case, a Canadian judge has ordered the government to pay a record $580,000 to criminal defense lawyers after a mistrial. The Tuesday award in an Ontario Superior Court kidnapping case is intended to cover the entire cost to the defense of the…

May 8, 2014 5:25 PM CDT

2 new tools allow you to compare major firms’ billing rates

Call it keeping up with the Joneses (or at least the Jones Days): Two new products provide peeks into the billing rates being charged by major law firms to allow benchmarking of their financial performance. The first, Peer Monitor from Thomson Reuters, enables large law firms to slice and dice…

May 1, 2014 8:20 AM CDT

Supreme Court eases standard for award of attorney fees in patent litigation

The Federal Circuit’s standards for the award of attorney fees in patent cases are “unduly rigid,” the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled. The Supreme Court issued opinions in two attorney fee cases today, including one cast as an avenue to deter frivolous litigation by patent trolls. The opinions ease the…

Apr 29, 2014 2:56 PM CDT

Law firm’s revised debt-collection letter results in $49.5K settlement of federal class action

A New Jersey law firm and a co-defendant have agreed to pay, and a federal judge on Tuesday approved, a $49,500 class action settlement over the language Mattleman, Weinroth & Miller used in a collection letter. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act specifies what must be said in the so-called…

Apr 17, 2014 3:10 PM CDT