Archives: Fees

Why Lawsuit Funding May Go Mainstream

By Barry Barnett on May 31, 2016 Posted in Fees

Big verdict Hulk Hogan’s case against Gawker Media made headlines four times — but only twice because of what the jury did. You’ll recall that a trial in Florida produced a verdict in favor of Mr. Hogan on his claim that Gawker had gone too far with a sex video. Jurors awarded the Hulkster (Terry Gene … Continue Reading

Chaos in the Lower Courts?

By Barry Barnett on February 29, 2016 Posted in Antitrust, Arbitration, Class Actions, Commercial, Corporate, and Contracts, Energy, Fees, Intellectual Property, Procedure, Securities

How will lower federal courts react to the loss of a 5-4 pro-business majority on the U.S. Supreme Court?… Continue Reading

How to Make the Real Bad Guys Pay

By Barry Barnett on February 17, 2016 Posted in Class Actions, Fees, Procedure

The Times’s Gretchen Morgenson asked in her “Fair Game” column whether making “financial executives personally liable for a portion of any . . . legal settlements” in class actions — regardless of personal fault — would cut down on bad conduct. I bet it would. But I have a better idea. Promise to pay class … Continue Reading

The Cost of Third-Party Litigation Funding

By Barry Barnett on October 19, 2015 Posted in Antitrust, Commercial, Corporate, and Contracts, Energy, Fees, Intellectual Property, Securities

Sizable expenses A big commercial case can cost millions in expenses — by which I mean out-of-pocket costs that the plaintiff or its counsel must pay net of attorneys’ fees. A portfolio of cases — for infringement of a patent or family of patents, say — can run many millions more. Who will bear that … Continue Reading

High Rates and Better Outcomes

By Barry Barnett on July 23, 2015 Posted in Fees

Contingent fee ruling A couple of months ago, the Fifth Circuit upheld a fee agreement that entitled the lawyers to full-price hourly fee plus a 15 percent contingent-fee on any recovery. An arbitration panel had ruled that the lawyers might never have received anything, including the hourly portion, in view of the fact that the contract … Continue Reading

Damn the Torpedoes

By Barry Barnett on July 2, 2015 Posted in Fees

Prologue A story from a long-ago summer day highlights the big rewards that you can earn from taking purposeful risks. In a little over a month, on August 5, 2015, 151 years will have passed since a commander took a gamble during the Battle of Mobile Bay. The commander knew that the defenders had rigged 67 subsurface mines across most of the Bay’s mouth. Heavy … Continue Reading

Going Flat

By Barry Barnett on June 25, 2015 Posted in Fees

Going flat In the last post, I reviewed the plusses and minuses of the hourly fee, which I said still strides the world of high-stakes litigation like a Colossus. But a distinctive trait of the hourly fee — its extreme concentration of risk on the client — limits its appeal and threatens its longevity. Almost all of the … Continue Reading

By the Hour

By Barry Barnett on June 22, 2015 Posted in Fees

Still dominant The billable hour bestrides the world of high-stakes litigation like a Colossus. Whatever its prospects,¹ today it continues to set the baseline for expectations about attorneys’ fees. Big firms charge by the hour, class action lawyers detail “lodestars” in fee applications, flat fees aim to smooth out hypothetical hourly charges, and hybrid and contingent fees can trigger … Continue Reading