Big Chunk of Settlement Went to Attorney’s Fees for Winning Plaintiff.
As reported by Tony Saavedra in an article in the January 26, 2012 Orange County Register, Orange County has paid $375,000 to end a federal lawsuit alleging that sheriff’s deputies arrested the wrong man, ordered him to strip naked, and beat him while taking pictures with their camera phones—a successful excessive force civil rights lawsuit can result in plaintiff recovering mandatory fees under a fee-shifting statute (though the fees must be reasonable in nature).
The actual lawsuit by plaintiff Jason Deats of Lake Forest went to trial before a Los Angeles federal jury, which concluded that excessive force was used by the deputies and that he was maliciously prosecuted by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. Jurors did not buy that he was stripped and beaten, or that the conduct justified punitive damages. The jury did award Mr. Deats $49,451 in compensatory damages. Orange County was also ordered to pay Mr. Deats’ legal fees to the tune of $325,549. This meant the settlement was a $25,000 concession plus waiver of interest and additional costs/fees. A large part of the settlement was for reimbursement of attorney’s fees, with civil rights case law written to encourage fee shifting in favor of prevailing plaintiffs.