3 ms·

Well, i guess i should have become a lawyer then. I don't think awarding millions to a single person is ever reasonable. It might be the logical thing to do if

Well, i guess i should have become a lawyer then. I don't think awarding millions to a single person is ever reasonable. It might be the logical thing to do if scarcity is very high, but 'reasonable'? I feel this is the judge rewarding his own tribe.

djrogers 10y ago
> I don't think awarding millions to a single person is ever reasonable. That's not what happened here. A law firm was awarded this portion of the settlement for several years and thousands of hours of work. The judge took their billing and added 20% because he thought they did exceptional work that deserved an exceptional reward (i.e. a 20% bonus - kinda like a courtroom MBO).
- Illniyar 10y ago
  Except that the minimum fee is 350$ an hour. If they worked for the standard 180 hours a month for 12 months they'll get something like a 700,000$ salary.many of the lawyers.probabaly did take home several million dollars in fees.
  - JumpCrisscross 10y ago
    And? Our cat-pic flippers do similarly without complaint from this community. Mind your blind spots
  - pc86 10y ago
    The largest sum billed by a single attorney was $1.4 million, and he obviously took home only a fraction of that. So the statement "several attorneys" were paid "several million" is provably false.
  - eridius 10y ago
    When a lawyer bills hundreds of dollars per hour, doesn't that actually include the assistance of paralegals and everything else that goes into supporting a lawyer? It's not like that's the lawyer's take-home pay.
    - ghaff 10y ago
      Right. And, in fact, it's specifically the lawyer's "billable hours" which are < the number of hours worked. (i.e. it doesn't include continuing education requirements, administrivia, etc.) The numbers cited are respectable lawyer pay but they're nothing extraordinary. When I worked on an expert witness report a number of years back, our hourly fee was in that vicinity.
- mcguire 10y ago
  This billing was out of the settlement, correct? Where does the rest of the settlement go? Did the judge just transfer money from the plaintiff to the plaintiff's lawyers?

djrogers 10y ago

> I don't think awarding millions to a single person is ever reasonable. That's not what happened here. A law firm was awarded this portion of the settlement for several years and thousands of hours of work. The judge took their billing and added 20% because he thought they did exceptional work that deserved an exceptional reward (i.e. a 20% bonus - kinda like a courtroom MBO).

Illniyar 10y ago
Except that the minimum fee is 350$ an hour. If they worked for the standard 180 hours a month for 12 months they'll get something like a 700,000$ salary.many of the lawyers.probabaly did take home several million dollars in fees.
- JumpCrisscross 10y ago
  And? Our cat-pic flippers do similarly without complaint from this community. Mind your blind spots
- pc86 10y ago
  The largest sum billed by a single attorney was $1.4 million, and he obviously took home only a fraction of that. So the statement "several attorneys" were paid "several million" is provably false.
- eridius 10y ago
  When a lawyer bills hundreds of dollars per hour, doesn't that actually include the assistance of paralegals and everything else that goes into supporting a lawyer? It's not like that's the lawyer's take-home pay.
  - ghaff 10y ago
    Right. And, in fact, it's specifically the lawyer's "billable hours" which are < the number of hours worked. (i.e. it doesn't include continuing education requirements, administrivia, etc.) The numbers cited are respectable lawyer pay but they're nothing extraordinary. When I worked on an expert witness report a number of years back, our hourly fee was in that vicinity.
mcguire 10y ago
This billing was out of the settlement, correct? Where does the rest of the settlement go? Did the judge just transfer money from the plaintiff to the plaintiff's lawyers?