The Chartwell Chronicles: New Jersey Attorney Fees
Policyholders vs. Insurers: 3 Arguments to Make When Selecting Defense Counsel & Hourly Rates
Hinshaw Insurance Law TV: Recent Changes in Florida Property Insurance Law and How They Will Affect First Party Insurance
How to Secure Advances to Fund Legal Fees
Legislative Update: Cannabis, COVID-19, COMAR and More
Let's Talk About How Much It Costs To Get Divorced
Employment Law and Attorney Fees from the Employee Perspective | Jason Smith | Texas Appellate Law Podcast
Let's Talk Retaining a Family Law Lawyer
The Dangers of Untimely Filings – What Employers Need to Know
THE PAPER CHASE
VIDEO: Are PA Workers Compensation Attorney Fees Now Taken from Medical Benefits Too?
What Should I Do If My Employer Failed to Pay Me Wages?
6 Key Takeaways | Ethics Developments in California
Meritas Capability Webinar - Controlling Where to Fight and Who Pays for it?
Who pays attorney fees in a divorce proceeding?
SEC Whistleblower Program: What Employers Need to Know
Bill on Bankruptcy: Lawyers Must Disclose What Clients Pay
Bill on Bankruptcy: Stockton May Win the Battle, Lose the War
In the latest decision in a long-running saga in Drazen v. Pinto, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals tackled several issues regarding a proposed class settlement agreement....more
A federal district court in Massachusetts dismissed ERISA fiduciary breach and prohibited transaction claims against 401(k) plan fiduciaries, ruling that the prohibited transaction claims were time-barred and the fiduciary...more
Bankruptcy offers debtors an opportunity for a "fresh start," the primary draw for many individuals seeking to unburden themselves of their debt. A bankruptcy discharge relieves a debtor of their legal obligation to repay...more
The City of San Clemente and the Reserve Maintenance Corporation initiated a lawsuit against the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Sierra Club. The lawsuit sought to invalidate a settlement agreement between the DOT...more
We have written in the past about exceptions to the general rule regarding a debtor’s ability to discharge debt in bankruptcy and achieve a “fresh start.” In a recent decision of interest, the Court of Appeals for the Fourth...more
In Escano v. Innovative Financial Partners, LLC, a magistrate judge held that the defendants’ decision to withhold funds from a payment required under a settlement agreement when the plaintiff refused to provide a Form W-9...more
Marchbanks v. Ice House Ventures, LLC, Slip. Op. No. 2023-Ohio-1866. In this discretionary appeal, the Ohio Supreme Court reversed the appellate court’s ruling, finding that an enforceable settlement agreement existed,...more
A recent Ninth Circuit decision clarified that the benefit to the class is the “touchstone for determining the reasonableness of attorneys’ fees in a class action.” Under this decision, the fee should not be based on the...more
The First Circuit gave defendant AthenaHealth something extra to celebrate this past holiday season when on December 21, 2022, in United States ex rel. Lovell v. AthenaHealth, Inc., it denied relators’ claims for over $1...more
Ever since the Texas Supreme Court changed the landscape of Texas law regarding appraisal in Barbara Technologies Corp. v. State Farm Lloyds, 589 S.W.3d 806 (Tex. 2019) and Ortiz v. State Farm Lloyds, 589 S.W.3d 127 (Tex....more
The plaintiff in Alvarez v. Sunshine Life & Health Advisors LLC - the first Florida Telephone Solicitation Act (FTSA) action to settle on a class basis - filed his motion for preliminary approval of the settlement. And the...more
Class action settlements can be structured in a variety of ways. Many include a common fund, consisting of an agreed-to amount the defendant deposits into a Qualified Settlement Fund, or “QSF,” a tax vehicle that facilitates...more
The Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office has ordered Kanye West’s Yeezy brand to pay $950,000 to settle a class action lawsuit claiming that the brand’s delayed shipping, and lack of notice thereof, is a violation of...more
On October 15, 2021, Judge William G. Young of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts approved a $14 million settlement in a national class action lawsuit against meal-kit delivery service company,...more
Last month, the Ninth Circuit struck down a district court’s order approving a class settlement and awarding nearly $7 million in attorneys’ fees to class counsel in a consumer class action challenging the defendant’s...more
Some time ago, the IRS issued an Audit Techniques Guide on the taxation of lawsuits, awards, and settlements. As many tax practitioners can attest, there are a multitude of tax issues involving any one of these issues. In...more
The Appellate Law Practice Group of Roetzel & Andress represented clients in a wide variety of cases in both state and federal courts, appealing adverse trial court rulings and successfully defending lower court victories on...more
An Illinois appellate court held that plaintiffs' malpractice action was time-barred because plaintiffs knew, or reasonably should have known, of their wrongfully caused damages more than two years before they filed. The...more
By Memorandum Opinion entered by The Honorable Maryellen Noreika in Mixing & Mass Transfer Technologies, LLC v. SPX Corporation et al., Civil Action No. 19-529-MN (D.Del. November 4, 2020), the Court denied the SPX...more
The author presented the following paper at the 2020 Class Actions National Institute of the American Bar Association. What makes mediating a class action different from mediating an individual case? In both settings,...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Incentive awards for class representatives are impermissible, according to a ground-breaking decision last week by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Though not an employment case, the...more
It is not atypical for class actions to be brought seeking damages that can be characterized as nominal in nature. An oftentimes powerful incentive for potential class representatives to put their names on a putative class...more
While not authorized by Rule 23, incentive awards to class representatives are a common feature of class action settlements. Nevertheless, a divided Eleventh Circuit panel ruled last Thursday that such payments are strictly...more
For years, class action settlements typically have included incentive payments to named plaintiffs. The payments usually represent a very small percentage of the overall settlement payout, and are designed to compensate named...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: “Objector blackmail” occurs in the class settlement approval process when a few class members object to a proposed settlement and, after the district court has overruled their objections, pursue appeals...more