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Mealey's Attorney Fees

  • March 28, 2025

    Contempt, Sanctions Upheld For Discovery Noncompliance In Bankruptcy Proceeding

    NEW YORK — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a bankruptcy court’s holding of contempt against two parties that did not comply with a discovery subpoena, as well as a corresponding imposition of sanctions with an award of attorney fees, ruling that the appellants and their counsel did not avail themselves of many opportunities to comply with court orders or to adequately explain their noncompliance.

  • March 27, 2025

    In Amended Opinion, Judge Stands By Ruling Insurer Does Not Owe Attorney Fees

    CHICAGO —A federal judge in Illinois filed an amended memorandum in a senior care primary liability insurer’s lawsuit challenging coverage for an underlying $934,232 judgment in a wrongful death and negligence action alleging that an insured violated the Nursing Home Care Act by failing to meet the standard of care at its skilled nursing facility, noting that the amended ruling does not affect the court's prior determination that the insurer has no duty to indemnify its insured for the underlying attorney fee award.

  • March 27, 2025

    New York Justice: Asbestos Study Subpoena Challenge Wasn’t Contempt

    NEW YORK — An asbestos expert’s and hospital’s delay in producing the identities of asbestos-talc study participants while they challenged a ruling requiring compliance with the subpoena constitutes zealous advocacy rather than clear disobedience, a New York justice said in declining to find contempt on the grounds that doing so would “chill such advocacy” and that attorney fees weren’t appropriate.

  • March 27, 2025

    $525,000 Settlement Of Philadelphia Inquirer Data Breach Suit Gets Final OK

    PHILADELPHIA — Five months after preliminarily approving a $525,000 settlement of privacy and negligence class claims over a 2023 data breach experienced by the Philadelphia Inquirer LLC, a Pennsylvania federal judge granted a motion for final approval of the settlement.

  • March 26, 2025

    Ex-NFL Player To 5th Circuit: Dismiss Fee Award Appeal In Disability Benefits Row

    NEW ORLEANS — Arguing in part that “[i]t would be patently unfair to reverse [his] benefits award while citing his failures to properly appeal and then excuse the Plan’s own failures to properly appeal the Fee Award,” a former National Football League player filed a motion asking the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to dismiss the plan’s appeal of an award of more than $1.25 million in attorney fees and costs.

  • March 25, 2025

    Judge Approves Settlement Of Consolidated Privacy Suit Over Photo Database

    CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge granted final approval to a settlement of claims against the creator and curator of a massive digital photo database under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), finding that the settlement fund being based on the startup company’s equity is appropriate given the defendant’s “precarious” financial situation.

  • March 25, 2025

    Judge Authorizes Payment Of Over $126K For Fees, Expenses In Insurer Bankruptcy

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware federal bankruptcy court judge granted an application for compensation and reimbursement to a trustee’s legal counsel in an insolvent insurer’s Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceeding, authorizing the trustee to pay his counsel $126,307.16, which includes $125,438 in compensation.

  • March 24, 2025

    Austrian Glass Company Wins Attorney Fees After Judge Confirms ICC Award

    MINNEAPOLIS — A Minnesota federal judge who previously granted an Austrian glass company’s motion to confirm an International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) award in its favor worth more than $1 million against a Minnesota company for failure to provide materials for a church project entered an additional judgment in favor of the Austrian company after granting in part and denying in part its motion for attorney fees.

  • March 20, 2025

    Wyoming High Court Affirms Dismissal For Failure To Pay Attorney Fee Sanction

    CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A trial court did not abuse its discretion or violate a personal injury plaintiff’s rights under the Wyoming Constitution by ordering her to pay defense attorney fees and costs as a sanction for violating a motion in limine or in dismissing her case with prejudice when she failed to pay the sanction as ordered, the Wyoming Supreme Court ruled.

  • March 20, 2025

    Idaho Supreme Court Sanctions Attorney Who Brought Legal Malpractice Case

    BOISE, Idaho — The attorney representing an Idaho couple who sued their former counsel for legal malpractice must pay the former counsel’s attorney fees on appeal pursuant to Idaho Appellate Rule 11.2’s frivolous filing clause and improper purpose clause, the Idaho Supreme Court ruled.

  • March 19, 2025

    Abuse Of Discretion Claim ‘Without Merit,’ 2nd Circuit Rules In Attorney Fee Spat

    NEW YORK — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a district court’s decision to award approximately $850,000 for attorney fees and costs to a New York man who was partially successful in a 2014 civil rights trial in which he alleged false arrest, malicious prosecution and denial of medical treatment, finding the abuse of discretion arguments made by a Nassau County, N.Y., police officer to be “without merit.”

  • March 19, 2025

    9th Circuit Denies Petition In Attorney Fee Challenge After Voluntary Dismissal

    PASADENA, Calif. — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel denied a petition for writ of mandamus filed by consumers who argued that their voluntary dismissal of their class complaint alleging underfill of lower calorie ice cream could not be hinged on their payment of attorney fees to the defendants or limits on refiling.

  • March 13, 2025

    Federal Judge Tosses Trademark Claims Between Activists, Rejects Recusal

    DALLAS — A federal judge in Texas dismissed with prejudice trademark claims and counterclaims in a dispute between two similarly named entities focused on the advancement of African Americans in the technology profession and denied a former litigant’s request for sanctions against one of the parties’ attorneys and recusal of the judge; the former litigant filed an immediate notice of appeal to the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • March 13, 2025

    Facebook Swimsuit-Photo App Loses Appeal Of Anti-SLAPP And Attorney Fees Rulings

    SAN FRANCISCO — A California appellate panel on March 12 affirmed an order striking claims against Facebook Inc., CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other employees for violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by restricting the developer of an app that searched Facebook for photos of people wearing swimsuits from accessing user data and affirmed a roughly $683,000 attorney fee award against the developer.

  • March 13, 2025

    GoDaddy’s Deadline Extended For Response To Motion To Appeal Settlement Ruling

    MOBILE, Ala. — A federal judge in Alabama on March 12 set April 3 deadlines for a response from GoDaddy.com LLC to a motion by class representatives to certify for appeal a February order declining enforcement of a Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) class settlement and for a response from class representatives to GoDaddy’s motion to dismiss claims by a deceased class representative; that order was filed one day after the judge declined to reconsider the February decision and directed GoDaddy to respond to the motion to certify the order for appeal.

  • March 11, 2025

    Supreme Court Rejects Another Copyright Attorney Fee Petition Involving Photos

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 10 rejected a real estate company’s request to consider whether the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals wrongly upheld a rejection of its request for attorney fees in a copyright infringement case brought against it, and then voluntarily dismissed, by a plaintiff photography company; it’s one of multiple recent denials of certiorari petitions in copyright cases involving the photography company.

  • March 11, 2025

    Supreme Court: No Rehearing In Copyright Attorney Fee Fight

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 10 denied a copyright defendant’s petition for rehearing, again leaving in place a finding from the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that he was not the “prevailing party” under federal copyright law in the face of the copyright owner’s voluntary dismissal of the case.

  • March 10, 2025

    Judge Enters $2.8M Judgment In Japan Energy Row After Debtor Withdraws Opposition

    NEW YORK — A New York federal judge confirmed an arbitral award and entered judgment worth more than $2.8 million against a Japanese energy company for failure to return collateral to a U.S. company after the Japanese company terminated its counsel and withdrew opposition to the petition, and also granted in part the petitioner’s application for attorney fees but awarded roughly $78,000 less than the petitioner sought after finding its hourly rates “unreasonably high.”

  • March 07, 2025

    Disabled Child’s Parents’ Appeal Of Rulings, Fees Rejected By 3rd Circuit

    PHILADELPHIA — Parents who took the fight for their disabled daughter’s educational rights to a New Jersey court failed in their appeal of summary judgment, dismissal and attorney fees rulings, with a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel finding their arguments and appeals untimely and forfeited.

  • March 07, 2025

    Judge: Insurer Timely Filed Motion For Attorney Fees In Hurricane Sally Suit

    PENSACOLA, Fla. — A federal judge in Florida granted a commercial property insurer’s motion for attorney fees after granting its motion for summary judgment in a coverage dispute arising from Hurricane Sally property damage, rejecting the insured’s argument that the motion for attorney fees was untimely.

  • March 07, 2025

    Idaho Supreme Court: Neither Parent Due Appeal Fees In Child Support Case

    BOISE, Idaho — The Idaho Supreme Court said neither parent in a child support case is entitled to attorney fees on appeal but said the father is due appellate costs under state court rules.

  • March 07, 2025

    Final Judgment Entered For $27.5 Million Thomson Reuters Data-Selling Settlement

    SAN FRANCISCO — One week after a California federal judge granted final approval to a $27.5 million settlement of a class action over Thomson Reuters Corp.’s online gathering and sale of personally identifying information (PII) of Californians, he issued final judgment in the four-year-old suit, dismissing unjust enrichment and unfair competition claims against the company.

  • March 07, 2025

    5th Circuit Affirms Refusal To Impose Statutory ERISA Penalty In Plan Documents Row

    NEW ORLEANS — In an unpublished March 6 per curiam opinion saying in part that the appellant didn’t “establish that the district court abused its discretion in” determinations made following a bench trial, a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed discovery and other rulings for the sponsor and administrator of an Employee Retirement Income Security Act medical benefits plan in a documents dispute.

  • March 07, 2025

    Disability Claimant Awarded $241K In Attorney Fees Based On Success On Appeal

    PITTSBURGH — A disability claimant is entitled to attorney fees of $241,746 and costs of $8,277, a Pennsylvania federal judge said after determining that the claimant achieved success on the merits of his claim based on the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ decision to vacate a summary judgment ruling in favor of the disability plan.

  • March 07, 2025

    Nevada Supreme Court Tosses $200,000 Quantum Meruit Fee, Lowers To $33,811

    CARSON CITY, Nev. — After twice vacating a $200,000 quantum meruit fee for a law firm discharged by its client, the Nevada Supreme Court used the parties’ arguments and concluded that the law firm should receive only $38,811.