Court Rejects $14 Million Fee For Lawyers, $3 Million For Their Clients

Forbes details Center for Class Action Fairness' legal action against a class-action settlement which would have paid lawyers who negotiated it over four times as much as their clients.

Attorneys with Ted Frank’s Center for Class Action Fairness sued to block the settlement, saying the fee was excessive given the small amount of money going to the lawyers’ clients.

The Third Circuit agreed in a decision that appears to set stricter new rules for class actions in its district even while upholding the utility of the mechanism. It acknowledged the “potential for conflict” between lawyers primarily interested in a fee and their clients, who are primarily interested in winning money.