> ... the judge is NOT imposing a higher judgement against the defendants.... this is just deciding that the lawyers are deserving of a larger percentage of the

> ... the judge is NOT imposing a higher judgement against the defendants.... this is just deciding that the lawyers are deserving of a larger percentage of the already-agreed-upon settlement amount. That's not how it works under the statute. In this case the amount of the attorney-fee award was computed as one-third of the settlement amount (this is the "lodestar" mentioned in the article), then the judge added a kicker for exceptional results; that's the traditional way it's done in the U.S. on the rare occasions when attorney fees are awarded [0]. But under 17 USC 505 [1], the attorney-fee award would be in addition to the settlement amount. [0] http://www.americanbar.org/content/newsletter/publications/gp_solo_magazine_home/gp_solo_magazine_index/magratten_phillips_connolly_feldman_mamaysky.html http://www.americanbar.org/content/newsletter/publications/g... [1] https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/505 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/505, explained at length in, e.g., http://www.rbs2.com/caf.pdf http://www.rbs2.com/caf.pdf