An involuntary bankruptcy petition is a limited, risky remedy for both creditors' counsel and debtor's counsel. The fee problems encountered by counsel for the petitioners and the putative debtor in this case provide a cautionary tale.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit made clear its view — that class-action plaintiffs' lawyers generally should not be awarded fees that exceed the amount their clients get from a settlement — as the court struck down a $1.7 million fee award in which a copyright plaintiffs' class received less than $53,000 in an infringement dispute settlement.
Which type of retainer agreement gives attorneys the best chance to preemptively shield their retainer fees before a client ends up in bankruptcy or the Department of Justice seizes and forfeits the client's assets?
With fewer restraints after Octane, district courts now have broader discretion to grant motions for attorney's fees. But understanding the circumstances under which exceptionality has been found is critical. Recent decisions by the Federal Circuit post-Octane provide some important guidance on when attorney's fees may be available under Section 285.
Collecting the Legal Fees It Cost You to Collect Legal Fees Does your New York commercial lease form expressly provide that the landlord may recover the legal fees it incurs to recover legal fees from its tenant? If not, then the landlord may be out of luck trying to recover such "fees on fees," as they are known. But it wasn't always this way.
