Jordan v. Paul Financial, LLC

Filing 440

ORDER TO PRODUCE RECORDS FOR FEE APPLICATION due 11/14/13. (Illston, Susan) (Filed on 11/12/2013) Modified on 11/12/2013 (ysS, COURT STAFF).

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 8 FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 9 United States District Court For the Northern District of California 10 11 12 13 14 15 No. C 07-04496 SI GREGORY M. JORDAN, et al., ORDER TO PRODUCE RECORDS FOR FEE APPLICATION Plaintiff, v. PAUL FINANCIAL, LLC, et al., Defendant. / 16 17 Currently before the Court is class counsel’s motion for attorneys’ fees and costs. Dkt. No. 433. 18 “[C]ourts have an independent obligation to ensure that the award, like the settlement itself, is 19 reasonable, even if the parties have already agreed to an amount.” In re Bluetooth Headset Products 20 Liab. Litig., 654 F.3d 935, 941 (9th Cir. 2011). The Ninth Circuit has approved two different methods 21 for calculating a reasonable attorneys’ fee: the lodestar and percentage-of-recovery methods. Id. at 941- 22 42. The Ninth Circuit encourages courts “to guard against an unreasonable result by cross-checking 23 their calculations against a second method.” Id. at 944. 24 Class counsel has provided the Court insufficient evidence to calculate the lodestar amount or 25 compare the lodestar amount with the reasonable percentage award. Counsel has provided the Court 26 with only a single declaration from one attorney involved in the case which asserts that “[b]ased on 27 contemporaneous, daily time records regularly prepared and maintained” by counsel, the “total hourly 28 billing amount for the work performed by the partners, associates, and professional support staff of those 1 firms . . . is well over $2 million.” Dkt. No. 433-1 ¶ 26. Counsel has provided no documentation of the 2 hourly billing rates, hours worked, substantive work performed or details regarding the qualifications 3 or even identities of the lawyers involved in the case. The Court is thus unable to evaluate the 4 reasonableness of the stated lodestar. 5 6 The Court recognizes that counsel seeks an award of fees substantially less than its stated lodestar amount. Nevertheless, the record at present is insufficient to evaluate the fee application. 7 Class counsel is accordingly directed to file with the Court a sworn, written description detailing 8 the projects and tasks completed by each lawyer involved in the case, their respective hourly billing 9 rates, and total hours worked on the case by Thursday, November 14. United States District Court For the Northern District of California 10 11 IT IS SO ORDERED. 12 13 Dated: November 12, 2013 14 SUSAN ILLSTON UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 2

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