Judge in Google privacy class action awards lawyers $147 million in legal fees

US District Judge Richard Seeborg in San Francisco granted the fee request by law firms Boies Schiller Flexner, Susman Godfrey, and Morgan & Morgan over objections from some class members. A jury in September found Google liable for secretly collecting app activity data from millions of users who had disabled a tracking feature. The law firms, which had sought billions of dollars in damages at trial, said they have devoted more than 49,670 hours to the litigation. In his ruling on fees, Seeborg said "this request is, without question, extraordinary, but it is warranted by the extraordinary nature of the case as well as by the exemplary performance of counsel." The plaintiffs' team included veteran litigator David Boies, who said he was billing at $2,730 per hour this year. Seeborg noted that "some intuitive discomfort" exists based on the size of the fee award, writing that "the lawyers are being handsomely rewarded for their success, even as each of the 98 million class members will walk away with less than $5." The plaintiffs said that only 269 class members objected to the fee request. Google has denied any wrongdoing and said it will appeal the verdict. The company argued that the plaintiffs "presented no survey evidence, expert testimony, or other uniform evidence establishing that users were actually misled by Google's disclosures." Seeborg also denied Google's request for a ruling summarily granting the company a win.

(Source：The Economic Times)