Microsoft has made a strong argument against the $97 million attorneys fees requested by Townsend and Townsend and Crew in its California antitrust consumer class action against Microsoft. T&T&C seeks another $197 million for 34 other firms that worked on the case. (The Recorder, Microsoft Says Class Fee Request Doesn’t Compute, 02-23-04)
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Microsoft says that the class action settlement merely piggybacked on the U.S. government’s antitrust case in U.S. v. Microsoft and other private litigation. (As we reported here last June, the FTC has made similar arguments against enormous fee requests in piggy-backed cases, as well as all-voucher cases, such as this California class action.)
According to the article, Townsend is seeking a 5.75 multiplier on its lodestar of $16 million, while Microsost says the multiplier should be no more than 1.5 on a portion of the thousands of claimed hours. The Recorder article offers many more details.