Class Counsel Awarded Fees of $19,302,316.90 (Inclusive of a 1.21 Multiplier) in Ford Explorer Settlement
Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Approves Fees Award in Recent June 27, 2008 Order.
And We Provide You With a Link to Kimberly A. Kralowec’s Post . . .
Click here.
Sacramento County Superior Judge De Alba recently approved a settlement and awarded attorney’s fees/costs in the Ford Explorer Cases, Sacramento County Super. Ct. Case No. 03AS05213. Kimberly has made available both the settlement and fee orders for review (see her August 19 post), but we briefly summarize the highlights of the fee/cost award.
· Judge De Alba granted total fees of $15,952,327.75 to 13 law firms. He also applied a 1.21 multiplier, which brought the fee total to $19,302,316.90.
· Judge De Alba awarded a total of $5,888,543.74 in expenses to most of the same law firms. He disapproved one counsel’s request to be reimbursed $322,263.51 for private airplane expenses.
· In finding that a 1.21 multiplier was appropriate, Judge De Alba did a very comprehensive review of the factors set forth in Serrano v. Priest (Serrano III), 20 Cal.3d 25, 43 (1977) [one of our Leading Cases]. He found that the case was novel and difficult because plaintiffs’ counsel had prevailed on many issues in test trials. He also complemented several class counsel for their exceptional skills at the trials and found that the contingency “carry” of the case was risky enough to justify use of a multiplier.