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Reduction in cap for attorney fees in Flint Water Crisis settlement arouses strong discussion

Written by Tanya Terry

Despite the fact U.S. District Court Judge Judith Levy ruled that attorney fees won’t be paid until claims are paid and until the common benefit award and attorney expenses are subtracted from the total, some Flint residents remain unhappy with the opinion and order she issued recently.

Fees will be capped at 25% for represented plaintiffs who retained counsel before August 20, 2020, and capped at 8% for counsel retained after that date. In a motion filed by settlement attorneys almost a year ago, a total maximum fee percentage for attorneys was requested to be capped at 31.6%. Attorneys had requested more than $200 million.

“I’m glad the judge made some adjustment,” said Former Flint Mayor Dr. Karen Williams Weaver.

Weaver said she believed the adjustment was a surprise to many people.

“I still think the overall total is still too small,” Weaver added. “It’s going to put a little more in the pot for some people, and that’s a good thing. The more we get the better. My problem is the total amount is still not enough to do justice for the people. It’s not representative of the value of the lives of the people and the impact the water has had between people losing their life, children and adults being damaged and a community being traumatized.”

Along with other objections, the court received 81 objections from unrepresented objectors. These objections stated: Plaintiffs’ attorneys are being paid too much and community residents are not receiving adequate compensation in view of the long-term harm the water crisis created. They also stated plaintiffs’ attorneys will receive much more compensation than the average adult in the settlement.

The attorney fee opinion and order was 99 pages long.

It read: “It is true that that the total attorney fee award exceeds the potential monetary award of any one individual claimant. However, this does not justify rejecting the entire fee and expense request. While the amount of an individual claimant’s recovery can be relevant to the amount awarded for attorney fees, it is ‘only one of many factors.’”

“Here, the $626.25 million settlement is record-breaking,” the extensive opinion and order also reads. “The portion of the settlement paid by the state defendants represents ‘one of the largest settlements in the state’s history.’…Additionally, over 50,000 individuals, property owners and businesses who were affected by the Flint Water Crisis have registered to participate in the settlement out of an estimated population of under 100,000…Moreover, as set forth in the Final Approval Opinion, the total number of objectors represents approximately 0.002%.”

During the objection period, some objectors argued many of those who did not agree with the settlement did not make a formal objection. Some community activists said these individuals were unable to for various reasons.

“The number of people who objected was not representative of the people who wanted to  object,” Weaver said. “When you have attorneys that are supposed to be representing you and they won’t even file an objection for you-and you gave to get another attorney to write it up, and then they set deadlines on the time you can get them in there, and you had to do all the work to get them, of course you’re not going to get all the objections that were really out there. Where do you see attorney that are supposed to represent, but if you object they are saying: ‘We’re not going to represent you?…They did everything to suppress objection forms.”

According to Levy’s order, attorneys will receive around $190 million. Flint residents are likely to receive more than $400 million once fees have been subtracted.

“Determining the appropriate fee award is a challenging task,” Levy said. “As is common in settlements, plaintiffs’ counsel’s fees and costs will be deducted from the $626.25 million total settlement, and accordingly, every dollar awarded to the attorneys is a dollar less for the claimants. Because of this, the court must balance society’s strong interest in paying lawyers for their work and encouraging counsel to accept similar engagements in the future with the important interest in maximizing the claimants’ monetary awards.”

Levy said plaintiffs’ counsel achieved an extraordinary settlement in a case that has been intensely litigated for nearly six years. She said the fees awarded reflect their hard and persistent work and that these fees are well-earned.

Weaver said she thinks what Levy does was a small victory for the people. She also said she wished the EPA had been forced to be part of the settlement.

“I think for the lawyers to ask for $202 million-that would have just been cruel for them to get that amount of money,” she added.”While they got a smaller amount, it just made no sense that they’re still getting the amount that they got. Where do you see where the attorneys get more than the victims? It’s almost like the judge split the baby; we’ll take a little more from the attorneys and give it to the people. The people will get a little bit more on top of an already little bit.”

The more than 50,000 people who have signed on as plaintiffs in the case have until May 12 to submit their paperwork with the claims administrator.

 

 

 

 

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