Chicken Price-Fixing Suit Nets $57.4M In Attorney Fees

A Chicago federal judge has awarded $57.4 million to plaintiffs’ lawyers who represented a class of chicken consumers that settled civil price-fixing claims for $181 million against poultry producers including Pilgrim’s Pride and Tyson Foods.

US District Judge Thomas Durkin, in rebuffing objections to the fee request, said in his order that court-appointed lead plaintiffs firms Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro and Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll took on the legal work “when few other counsel expressed interest” and moved ahead without the foundation of a government investigation as a guide.

“A substantial award is warranted here as a proper incentive for high quality counsel to take on complex cases, requiring a massive investment of time and money, with such a high risk of non-payment,” Durkin wrote in his order on Oct. 7. He called the plaintiffs’ legal work “exemplary.”

Steve Berman of Hagens Berman and Brent Johnson of Cohen Milstein on Monday said they “appreciate the court’s thoughtful attention to the application.”

In a court filing, the institute argued class counsel faced “minimal risk” in the litigation that began in 2016. Bednarz and the center argued a fee between $25.4 million and $31.5 million was “more proportionate to the benefit realized by the class.”

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