Fee Award Included A Positive 1.5 Multiplier For Plaintiffs’ Counsel.
Gibson’s Bakery and its owners sued Ohio’s Oberlin College for libel/intentional infliction of emotional distress, winning a jury verdict of around $44 million (compensatory and punitive damages added together). Later, Lorain County Common Pleas Judge John Miraldi reduced the judgment to $25 million—Ohio’s largest libel judgment.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys, two law firms and a sole practitioner, then requested attorney’s fees of $9.5-14.5 million for 14,400 in billable hours as well as $404,000 in expenses. Oberlin College countered that a proper fee award should be in the range of $2-2.25 million, although defense counsel admitted billing 15,600 hours on the case.
Judge Miraldi determined that the proper lodestar for plaintiffs’ attorney work was $4,180,930, which he increased to $6,271,395 based on a positive 1.5 multiplier enhancement. He also awarded $294,000 in expenses, about 75% of plaintiffs’ request.