Los Angeles Court Orders Employer To Pay Whistleblower $2.3 Million In Attorney’s Fees On Top Of $24 Million Judgment – Whistleblowing

A California decide has ordered Farmers Insurance coverage to pay nearly
$2.3 million in legal professional’s charges to the legal professionals of a profitable
whistleblower/former in-house legal professional who claimed his function as a
potential witness in a intercourse bias class motion acquired him fired. The
underlying judgment in favor of the whistleblower was $24.36
million – after the Decide decreased the punitive
damages award by greater than $131 million.

The worker’s attorneys had sought $6.7 million in
prevailing-party legal professional’s charges, together with a
“multiplier” of two occasions the precise charges incurred. The
employer, alternatively, beneficial an award of roughly
$1 million. On Jan. 20, 2023, Los Angeles Superior Courtroom Decide Ruth
A. Kwan awarded the worker’s legal professionals $2,266,704,
“inclusive of a modest multiplier of 1.1.”

Decide Kwan discovered the worker’s attorneys’ hourly charges
to be extreme. The Decide performed an evaluation of “what
quantity of charges could be ‘affordable’ in gentle of the
relative extent or diploma of the celebration’s success in acquiring
the outcomes sought.” The lead lawyer for the worker sought
an hourly charge of $1,425, hourly charges of as much as $1,100 for different
senior legal professionals and as much as $850 for associates who had labored on the
case. The Decide decreased these hourly charges throughout the board partly
as a result of they mirrored a combination between present and previous charges that
had been in place when the case was first filed in August 2016. The
hourly charges for the lead lawyer had been decreased to $1,050 and for the
different legal professionals who labored on the case to a most of $825.

As well as, Decide Kwan made an across-the-board discount of
10% to the legal professional’s charges resulting from perceived duplicative
billing. “Extreme billing was evident” from a number of
attorneys who billed for days at trial with out “meaningfully
contributing.” This 10% discount in charges additionally lined
challenges concerning “extreme journey time.” Decide Kwan
did word, nevertheless, {that a} 1.1 multiplier was applicable on this
case in gentle of the attorneys’ “distinctive ability”
in efficiently advocating on behalf of an older white male throughout
the peak of the “Me Too” motion.

We beforehand reported about this case in December 2021, when a Los Angeles jury
rendered the eye-popping $155.4 million verdict in favor of the
worker, together with $150 million in punitive damages. Nonetheless, in
Might 2022, Decide Kwan decided that the punitive damages award was
extreme and considerably decreased it to $18.945 million
(leading to an approximate 3.5:1 ratio of punitive to
compensatory damages). The plaintiff accepted the decreased award in
lieu of a brand new trial. Nonetheless, Farmers Insurance coverage appealed the
decreased verdict.

The enchantment is pending within the California Courtroom of Attraction, Second
Appellate District, Rudnicki v. Farmers Ins. Exch., et
al., Docket No. B321691 (Cal. Ct. App. Jun 27, 2022).

(Hyperlink to enchantment docket: California Courts – Appellate Court Case
Information)

Los Angeles Court Orders Employer To Pay Whistleblower $2.3 Million
In Attorney’s Fees On Top Of $24 Million Judgment

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