IN RE: ALL INDIVIDUAL KUGEL MESH CASES Master
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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS
PROVIDENCE, SC.
SUPERIOR COURT
(FILED – AUGUST 11, 2009)
IN RE: ALL INDIVIDUAL
KUGEL MESH CASES
:
:
Master Docket No: PC-2008-9999
DECISION
GIBNEY, J. Before this Court is the motion of Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee (“PSC”)
to establish a fund to compensate attorneys who work for the common benefit of all
plaintiffs in this multi-case products liability litigation. Two plaintiffs’ attorneys who are
not part of the PSC object to the motion.
I
Facts and Procedural History
By order of the Presiding Justice, dated March 8, 2007, all filings in Providence
County Superior Court alleging personal injuries from Kugel Mesh hernia repair patches
were assigned to this Court for multi-case management. (Administrative Order No.
2007-6.)
The order authorizes this Court to dispose of any and all pre-trial motions
related to this litigation and to preside over trials, should any occur. Id. The order further
empowers this Court to “issue special orders for the due administration of these causes of
action.” Id.
Pursuant to this authority, on July 10, 2008, this Court entered an order
establishing an eight seat Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee to coordinate discovery and
motion practice in the approximately 1000 individual Kugel Mesh cases currently
pending before this Court. (Order Appointing Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee, I (1-7).)
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The Court also designated Plaintiffs’ Liaison Counsel to act as the primary conduit
between the Court and plaintiffs’ counsel. Id. at II(8).
The PSC and Liaison Counsel represent that they have incurred expenses and
performed work for the common benefit of all plaintiffs in this litigation. To date, the
members of the PSC have conducted a significant amount of discovery and have engaged
in extensive motion practice before this Court.
To compensate and reimburse the PSC, Liaison Counsel, and other authorized
attorneys performing “common benefit work,” the PSC has proposed a 12% assessment
(8% for attorney’s fees and 4% for costs) on the “gross monetary recovery” of plaintiffs
who settle with or obtain a judgment from the defendants. (Proposed Order at 2(A).)
The Proposed Order directs the defendants to withhold the assessment from any amounts
paid to a plaintiff in the following four types of cases:
i. any case pending in the Coordinated Litigation;
ii. any unfiled case where the plaintiffs attorney and/or his
or her firm has executed an agreement to cooperate with the
PSC in the Coordinated Litigation and to pay the
assessment;
iii. any case in which a member of the PSC has a fee
interest whether or not that case is filed or unfiled in state
or federal court; and
iv. any case in which counsel receives a substantial benefit
from the work of the PSC or receives assistance from the
PSC which provided a direct benefit to counsel, whether or
not that case is filed or unfiled in state or federal court.1 Id.
at 2(C).
1
Under the version of the Proposed Order before this Court on March 24, 2009, when this matter was
heard, subsection iv provided differently, stating that the assessment applied to “any case in which counsel
receives any benefit from the effects of the Plaintiff’s Steering Committee toward the common interests of
this coordinated litigation.” (emphasis added)
2
The Proposed Order also provides that if there is a dispute as to whether a particular
plaintiff falls under one of these four types of cases, a special master or the Court may be
asked to resolve the issue. 2 Id. at 2(E).
Under the Proposed Order, the Defendants are directed to pay the 12% assessment
into a common benefit fund as a credit against any settlement or judgment. Id. at 2(D).
A special master jointly recommended by the PSC and Defendants shall manage the
common benefit fund and assure confidentiality. Id. at 1(B)-(C). Disbursements from
the common benefit fund to compensate attorneys who provide “common benefit work”
are made only upon review and approval of this Court. Id. at 4(D). The Proposed Order
details the various reporting requirements of attorneys intending to apply for common
benefit funds and instructs that
[o]nly time on matters common to all claimants in the
Coordinated Litigation (“common benefit work”) will be
considered in determining fees.
No time spent on
developing or processing individual issues in any case for
an individual client (claimant), with the exception of
bellwether, ADR, or neutral evaluation cases, will be
considered or should be submitted. Id. at 5(C)(i).
The Proposed Order further provides that should the funds collected exceed what is
necessary to compensate or reimburse applicants for their common benefit work, the
Court may order a refund to those who contributed. Id. at 4(E).
The first version of the Proposed Order was presented to this Court at a December
9, 2008 hearing. At the time, Liaison Counsel represented that it had been unanimously
agreed to by all plaintiffs in the litigation. (Tr. 8.) Indeed, Liaison Counsel assured the
2
The earlier version of the Proposed Order did not contain this provision.
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Court that “every firm known to represent a plaintiff in this litigation was consulted with,
had agreed to, and was a signatory of the Proposed Order.”
At the time, however, the Defendants objected to the Proposed Order on two
grounds.
The first objection concerned settlement confidentiality.
Specifically,
Defendants were concerned that if they were required to pay 12% of any settlement into a
common benefit fund, the PSC would easily be able to deduce the amounts of individual
settlements. The PSC subsequently addressed this concern by adding language to the
Proposed Order that provides for an independent escrow agent to keep individual
settlement amounts confidential. See Proposed Order at 1(B)-(C).
The Defendants’
second objection concerned the requirement that they, rather than the individual plaintiffs
in this litigation, assume responsibility for withholding assessments. The Defendants no
longer press this second objection and have assented to the Proposed Order as drafted.
Upon representation of counsel, sometime after the December 9, 2008 hearing,
two attorneys, John Deaton and Steven M. Johnson, filed approximately sixty Kugel
Mesh cases in this Court. These attorneys are not members of the PSC, nor are they
signatories of the Proposed Order. When they learned of the Proposed Order, they
strongly objected. On March 24, 2009, the Court heard vigorous arguments on the issue.
The objecting attorneys raise essentially three arguments against entry of the
Proposed Order. First, they caution this Court not to unilaterally enter an assessment
order while parallel proceedings are pending in a federal MDL without seeking to
coordinate with the federal MDL court. Second, they argue that assessing a common
benefit fee without offering notice and an opportunity to be heard violates the U.S.
Constitution’s guarantee of due process. Third, they object that the requested 12%
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assessment is two to three times higher than what is normal in complex litigation. The
Court will address each argument in sequence.
II
Standard of Review
Rhode Island adheres to the firmly rooted “American rule,” which requires each
litigant to pay his or her own attorney's fees absent statutory authority or contractual
liability. Moore v. Ballard, 914 A.2d 487, 489 (R.I. 2007) (citing Eleazer v. Ted Reed
Thermal Inc., 576 A.2d 1217, 1221 (R.I.1990)). The American rule is not without
exception, however, as our Supreme Court has recognized that equity sometimes
demands departure from the general rule. See Vincent v. Musone, 574 A.2d 1234, 1235
(R.I. 1990) (recognizing the “inherent power to fashion an appropriate remedy that would
serve the ends of justice); see also Truk Away of Rhode Island, Inc. v. Macera Bros. of
Cranston, Inc., 643 A.2d 811, 817 (R.I. 1994).
The common-fund exception to the American Rule is founded upon the principle
that “persons who obtain the benefit of a lawsuit without contributing to its cost are
unjustly enriched at the successful litigant’s expense.” D. Herr, Manual for Complex
Litigation, § 14.121, p. 248 (4th ed. 2008) (quoting Boeing Co. Van Gemert, 444 U.S.
472, 478 (1980)). The exception is “grounded in the equitable powers of the courts under
the doctrines of quantum meruit and unjust enrichment.” Id. The common-fund doctrine
has long been recognized by our Supreme Court in the context of land partition actions.
Moore v. Ballard, 914 A.2d 487, 490 (R.I. 2007) (“where a suit for partition was
necessary, and its benefit inured to all the parties, the cost of procuring it should not be
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thrown wholly upon the complainant, but should be borne in part by those who share in
the benefit”) (quoting Robinson v. Robinson, 24 R.I. 222, 223, 52 A. 992, 993 (1902)).
“While class actions furnish the most fertile ground for the [common benefit]
doctrine, its reach is not limited to such cases.” In re Thirteen Appeals Arising Out of
San Juan Dupont Plaza Hotel Fire Litigation, 56 F.3d 295, 305, n.6 (1st Cir. 1995). For
instance, in litigation where a large number of cases with common issues are
consolidated, “stony adherence to the American rule invites a serious free-rider problem.”
In re Nineteen Appeals Arising Out of San Juan Dupont Plaza Hotel Fire Litigation, 982
F.2d 603, 606 (1st Cir. 1992). “[E]ach attorney, rather than toiling for the common good
and bearing the cost alone, will have an incentive to rely on others to do the needed work,
letting those others bear all the costs of attaining the parties’ congruent goals.” Id.
Courts have attempted to minimize the free-rider problem through measures “reasonably
calculated to avoid ‘unjust enrichment of persons who benefit from a lawsuit without
shouldering its costs.’” Id. (quoting Catullo v. Metzner, 834 F.2d 1075, 1083 (1st Cir.
1987)). Typically, courts do this by “specially compensating those who work for the
collective good.” Id. The practice, while criticized by some, 3 is widely employed in
federal multi-district litigation. See Manual for Complex Litigation, § 20.312, p. 321
(stating that “MDL judges generally issue orders directing that defendants who settle
MDL-related cases to contribute a fixed percentage of the settlement to a general fund to
pay national counsel[]”); In re Zyprexa Prods. Liab. Litig., 467 F. Supp. 2d 256, 267
(E.D.N.Y. 2006) (stating that “it has been a common practice in the federal courts to
3
See Charles Silver & Geoffrey Miller, The Quasi-Class Action Method of Managing MultiDistrict
Litigations: Problems and a Proposal, New York University Law and Economics Working Papers 174
(2009).
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impose set-asides in the early stages of complex litigation in order to preserve commonbenefit funds for later distribution”) (citation omitted).
III
Analysis
A
Coordination with the Federal MDL Court
The objecting attorneys argue that it would be unprecedented for a state court
such as this to enter an order of the type proposed, while parallel proceedings are pending
in federal MDL, without first attempting to coordinate with the federal MDL court. The
preferable method, the objecting attorneys argue, is that advanced by the Manual for
Complex Litigation, which advocates for federal and state cooperation in setting
common-benefit fees. Section 20.312. The objecting attorneys caution that if this Court
were to unilaterally enter the Proposed Order, and the federal MDL court were to reject
or enter a different assessment percentage, it would likely lead to forum shopping and
confusion.
The Court agrees with the objecting attorneys that federal-state coordination on
this issue is preferable. As of the March 24, 2009 hearing, the PSC had not made a
request to the federal MDL court to enter an assessment order. This Court received
correspondence from the PSC that a Motion for Assessment Order was filed in federal
court on June 5th, 2009. Since then, this Court has communicated with the federal MDL
court regarding this issue. The objecting attorneys may rest assured that reasonable
efforts are being made to achieve consistency.
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B
Due Process
The objecting attorneys next argue that the Proposed Order violates their right to
Due Process guaranteed by the Federal Constitution. Specifically, the objecting attorneys
contend that they have a property interest in their contingency fee contracts with their
individual clients, that an assessment “takes” a portion of this contracted fee to subsidize
the work of the PSC, and that despite this deprivation, they have not been afforded a
meaningful opportunity to be heard. While the Court permitted the parties to ague this
issue at length on March 24, 2009, the opposing attorneys call for a full evidentiary
hearing on the appropriateness of the proposed percentage and the amount of “common
benefit work” that has thus far been performed.
When reviewing the constitutionality of pre-trial procedures, our Supreme Court
has looked to the three-part test articulated by the United States Supreme Court in
Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319, 335 (1976); see City of Pawtucket v. Pimental, 960
A.2d 981, 988 -989 (R.I. 2008); John J. Orr & Sons, Inc. v. Waite, 479 A.2d 721, 723
(R.I. 1984). Specifically, the three factors to be considered in determining whether
pretrial procedures have violated due process are “(1) the private interest that will be
affected by the official action, (2) the risk of an erroneous deprivation of such interest
through the procedures used and the possible value, if any, of additional or substitute
procedural safeguards, and (3) the government's interest, including the function involved
and the fiscal and administrative burdens that the additional or substitute procedural
requirements would entail.” Waite, 479 A.2d at 723-24 (citing Mathews, 424 U.S. at
335).
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The first Matthews factor requires an identification of the “private interest that
will be affected by the official action.” 424 U.S. at 335. In this case, the objecting
attorneys’ contingency fee contracts with their clients is the interest that would be
affected by a court-sanctioned assessment fee. As explained at the March 24, 2009
hearing, an 8% assessment on attorney’s fees could reduce an attorney’s 33.3%
contracted contingency fee to 25% without that attorney’s consent. (Tr. 50.) Since the
objecting attorneys jointly represent over sixty plaintiffs in this litigation, there is little
question that large sums of money may be at issue and that the degree of potential
deprivation would be substantial. See In re Thirteen Appeals, 56 F.3d at 295 (finding that
individually retained plaintiff’s attorneys have “a salient private interest in the fees due
them for services rendered”). Therefore, the Court finds that the affected interest here is
significant.
The second Matthews factor requires the Court to consider the fairness of the
pretrial procedure and “the probable value, if any, of additional procedural safeguards.”
424 U.S. at 335. As mentioned supra, the Proposed Order requires Defendants to hold
back 12% of any settlement or judgment from any plaintiff who has a case “pending in
the Coordinated Litigation.” (Proposed Order at 2(C)(i).) The 12% withholding also
applies to claims that have not yet been filed, provided plaintiff’s counsel “receives a
substantial benefit from the work of the PSC or receives assistance from the PSC which
provides a direct benefit to counsel.” Id. at 2(C)(iv). The version before the Court at the
March 2009 hearing contained an even lower threshold for triggering the assessment.
Under that version, the plaintiff merely needed to receive “any benefit” from the PSC for
the 12% withholding to apply. This prompted the objecting attorney present at the
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hearing to query, “does that mean one corporate depo[sition] triggers the 12 percent?”
(Tr. 56, Mar. 24, 2009.)
The 12% withholding is sequestered in an escrow account managed by a special
master. (Proposed Order, 1(B)-(C).) Attorneys who have been authorized by the PSC to
perform common benefit work may then apply to the Court for compensation from the
fund. (Proposed Order, 4(A).) Attorneys applying for funds are required to keep detailed
accountings of their time and expenses. Section 6(C)(ii) (attorneys must “keep a daily
record of their time spent in connection with common benefit work on this litigation,
indicating with specificity the hours and particular activity”). Time must be kept in onetenth increments. Section 6(C)(iii). The Proposed Order also details the type of litigation
expenses that are reimbursable. Section 6(D).
The Court is then charged with reviewing the applicants’ submissions. Section
4(D). The Proposed Order provides that “[n]o amounts will be disbursed without review
and approval by the Court or such other mechanism as the Court may deem just and
proper under the circumstances.” Id. Any amounts remaining in the common benefit
fund after all claims have been settled will be returned to the attorneys who paid a portion
of their fees into the account. Section 4(E).
The Proposed Order, as it existed at the March 2009 hearing, did not provide an
opportunity for non-signatories to challenge whether a 12% assessment would be fair in
the circumstances. Once a non-signatory attorney received “any benefit” from the PSC’s
work, triggering the 12% withholding, the only way under the Proposed Order he or she
could be assessed less than 12% was if the amount collected in the common benefit fund
“exceeds the amount needed to make all payments” and the Court orders a refund. Id.
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The non-signatory attorneys objected that this is unfair because they believe many
of the expenses being incurred by the PSC are unnecessary. As explained in their
memorandum, the objecting attorneys assert that this litigation is not as complex as the
PSC contends, nor as complex as other mass torts:
[A]n individual Kugel Mesh device with a ring break is
almost exactly analogous to the wood-spooked [sic] wheel
that collapsed under Mr. Macpherson’s Buick automobile
almost a century ago. See Macpherso v. Buick Motor Co.,
217 N.Y. 382, 111 N.E. 1050 (1916) (Cardozo, J.). It is a
classic Restatement of Torts Section 402A or UCC breach
of warranty case . . . . It would, in fact, be possible to try a
ring break case almost immediately—the plaintiff need
only . . . prove that the product failed and caused his or her
injuries—the knowledge of the defendant, how the product
was marketed, etc., may only be relevant to the issue of
punitive damages, which many states limit or disallow
completely . . . . (Objecting Attorneys’ Mem. 7-8.)
The objecting attorneys insist that a plaintiff with a strong case may achieve a fair
settlement with minimal discovery and, therefore, it would be “highly inappropriate to
impose a tax on that plaintiff and his counsel [for the PSC] to do a huge amount of
discovery that may, in fact, turn out to be not very useful to that plaintiff.” Id.
The Court is mindful that the PSC and Liaison Counsel have shouldered the lion’s
share of expense and work thus far in this litigation. The Court also acknowledges that
the objecting attorneys and all plaintiffs who subsequently file claims, but who are not
signatories to the Proposed Order, will likely benefit to some degree from the work that is
being performed. The fundamental requirements of due process, however, demand that
the objecting attorneys, and all non-signatories of the Proposed Order, be given the
opportunity to be heard “at a meaningful time and in a meaningful manner” on the issue
of whether a 12% assessment is fair in a given set of circumstances. Matthews, 424 U.S.
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at 333. The Court will provide that opportunity subsequent to Defendants’ withholding a
12% assessment in a non-signatory’s case, but before such funds are distributed to
attorneys who have performed common benefit work, or at such time as the Court directs.
Indeed, the most recent version of the Proposed Order now appears to contemplate the
opportunity for such a hearing. Specifically, ¶ 2(E) provides in pertinent part:
In the event there is a dispute as to whether a case should
be [subject to the Order], Defendants shall provide
Plaintiffs’ Liaison Counsel with a list of cases that the
Settling Plaintiff’s Attorney has resolved with the
Defendants and Plaintiffs’ Liaison Counsel shall resolve
the matter with the particular Settling Plaintiff’s Attorney
either informally or upon motion to the Special Master,
unless the Settling Plaintiff’s Attorney or Plaintiffs’ Liaison
Counsel requests that it be considered by the Court.
As to the type of hearing, due process does not require a full evidentiary hearing
for all fee disputes. See In re Thirteen Appeals, 56 F.3d at 303 (holding that parties to a
fee dispute do not have the right to an evidentiary hearing on demand). Nevertheless, the
Court will provide non-signatories “a fair opportunity to present relevant facts and
arguments to the court, and to counter the opponents’ submissions.” Id. at 302 (quoting
Aoude v. Mobile Oil Corp., 862 F.2d 890, 894 (1st Cir. 1988)). The Court will then
determine the appropriate percentage, if any, to permit as an assessment and order the
remainder refunded to the contributing attorney.
The third Mathews factor assesses the interest of the government and “the fiscal
and administrative burdens that the additional or substitute procedural requirements
would entail.” Waite, 479 A.2d at 723-24. There is little question that the government
has a significant interest in conserving scarce judicial resources. See Kedy v. A.W.
Chesterton Co., 946 A.2d 1171, 1188 (R.I. 2008); In re Thirteen Appeals, 56 F.3d at 301.
12
The Court harbors no illusions that the additional procedural safeguard of providing an
opportunity for non-signatories to challenge the appropriateness of the 12% assessment
will be time-consuming and difficult. See The Quasi-Class Action Method of Managing
Multidistrict Litigations, at 14 (stating that “the task of figuring out whose services are
worth what is both extremely difficult as a theoretical matter and extremely messy as an
empirical matter”). This is especially true in light of the fact that no one knows for sure
how many additional plaintiffs represented by non-signatory attorneys will file cases in
the future. In providing this procedural safeguard, the Court does not intend to preside
over lengthy collateral litigation concerning attorneys’ fees. See In re Nineteen Appeals,
982 F.2d 614 (“‘[a] request for attorney’s fees should not result in a second major
litigation’”) (quoting Hensley v. Eckhart, 461 U.S. 424, 437 (1983)).
The Court,
therefore, encourages the PSC and non-signatory attorneys to resolve their differences
informally before resorting to this procedure. However, this procedure will certainly be
available. The Court will also maintain a flexible approach to these hearings and may,
based upon the circumstances, change when and how these hearings are conducted.
Accordingly, this Court concludes that allowing the objecting attorneys and other
non-signatories who may join this litigation an opportunity to be heard at an appropriate
time is an “additional procedural safeguard” necessary for the Proposed Order to comport
with the requirements of due process.
C
The 12% Figure
The objecting attorneys’ third contention is that the requested 12% withholding is
two to three times higher than what is normal in similar litigation.
13
The objecting
attorneys submit the affidavit of Harvard Law School professor William B. Rubenstein, a
nationally recognized expert on complex civil litigation and class action law. Professor
Rubenstein has collected information on assessment fees that federal MDL courts have
imposed in 21 cases and has concluded that if this Court were to accept the PSC’s
proposed withholding, it would be the second-highest assessment rate in this sample.
The data also demonstrate that a 4% to 6% assessment rate is the norm.
The PSC counters that the 12% assessment is well within the bounds of
percentages awarded to attorneys for common benefit work in consolidated litigation.
The PSC points to its own data containing examples in which the assessment percentage
was above 12%. See, e.g., In re Orthopedic Bone Screw, MDL No. 1014, 2000 U.S.
Dist. LEXIS 15980 (PTO 402) (E.D. Pa. 1996) (17% assessment); In re Copley Pharm.,
Inc., 1 F.Supp. 2d 1407, 1415 (D. Wyo. 1998) (13% assessment).
The PSC also identifies several factors that it believes makes the 12% figure
reasonable. The first is the relatively small size of this litigation compared with other
MDLs. While still extremely costly and complex, the PSC points out that there are fewer
potential settlements in this litigation to fund common benefit work than in most MDLs.
Therefore, a higher assessment percentage is more appropriate here than in larger
litigation, such as in the Vioxx litigation which encompasses upwards of 27,000 cases.
The PSC also argues that the 12% assessment is fair because this PSC has been extremely
inclusive in permitting attorneys to perform common benefit work. The more attorneys
performing this work, the PSC argues, the higher the initial withholding so that everyone
participating may be compensated. The PSC adds that it has extended an offer to the
objecting attorneys to perform common benefit work.
14
In setting a reasonable percentage of fees to allocate to class or lead counsel in
similar litigation, courts have considered factors, such as (1) the size of the fund created;
(2) agreements reached by counsel involved; (3) the presence of objectors; (3) the skill
and efficiency of the attorneys; (4) the complexity and duration of the litigation; (5) and
the awards in similar cases, among others. See Manual for Complex Litigation, §14.121,
p. 252-53; In re: Diet Drugs (Phentermine, Fenfluramine, Dexfenfluramine) Products
Liability Litigation, 2002 WL 32154197, 10 (E.D.Pa. 2002). At this stage, however, the
12% common benefit fund set-aside is merely “a holdback, not a levy.” See In re Zyprexa
Products Liability Litigation, 467 F.Supp.2d 256, 267 (E.D.N.Y. 2006); Turner v.
Murphy Oil, 422 F.Supp.2d 676, 681 (E.D.La. 2006) (“It is important to note that these
are set-asides, not disbursements: no amounts are paid to attorneys from the set-aside
fund until the attorneys demonstrate that they have worked for the common benefit.”).
As discussed supra, the objecting attorneys will have an opportunity, at the
appropriate time, to challenge the proposed 12% assessment, and this Court may exercise
its discretion to modify that percentage downward, if warranted. In light of this fact, the
Court finds that the withholding is not unreasonable. Moreover, the 12% figure is the
result of extensive negotiation and reflects the consensus of plaintiffs’ attorneys
representing 94% of the approximately 1000 plaintiffs in this litigation. (PSC Mem. 911.) At this relatively early stage in the litigation, these attorneys are better positioned
than the Court to determine what might be needed to compensate those working for the
common benefit of all. Accordingly, given the substantial amount of discovery the PSC
has thus far conducted, the scope of this litigation, the procedural safeguards in place for
non-signatory attorneys, and the fact that the proposed percentage has been assented to by
15
the vast majority of plaintiffs’ attorneys, the Court concludes that a 12% set-aside is fair
and reasonable.
Conclusion
For the reasons expressed in this Decision, the PSC’s motion to enter the
Proposed Order is granted.
The Court shall provide non-signatory attorneys a fair
opportunity to contest the 12% assessment at an appropriate time following withholdings
in their cases. Counsel may submit the Proposed Order for entry.
16
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