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Fogle v. William Chevrolet/Geo, Inc.

Attorney's mediocre performance in consumer fraud case warranted 75 percent reduction in excessive fee application; attorney's hourly rate was not supported by single affidavit of non-practicing attorney unfamiliar with local market.

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The full case caption appears at the end of this opinion.

Posner, Circuit Judge. After obtaininga favorable settlement of their consumerfraud lawsuit against the defendant, anautomobile dealer, in which they hadcharged violations of the federal truth-in-lending and odometer-tamperingstatutes as well as various Illinoisstate laws in the sale of two cars tothem, the plaintiffs asked the districtcourt to award them $44,000 (we arerounding off to the nearest $1,000) inattorney’s fees for the work oftheirlawyer, Andy Norman. Norman hadarrived at this amount by multiplying hisclaimed hourly fee of $310 by the numberof hours (143) that he claimed to haveput in on the case. The district judgefound that Norman’s performance, althoughit had achieved significant relief forthe plaintiffs– the rescission of thecontract for one of the cars and a refundof a substantial part of the purchaseprice of the other–had been mediocre.Norman was “in the bottom-tier skill-wiseof this specialty [consumer fraudlitigation] based on his performance inthis case” and $310 was not his realhourly fee. The judge cut Norman’s hoursto 60 and his fee to $185, and so awardedthe plaintiffs only $11,000 in attorney’sfees.

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