Two recent rulings from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit have made it clear that plaintiffs attorneys who don’t earnestly assess their fee petitions before submitting them can get slapped down by the courts—hard.

In one decision, Clemens v. New York Central Mutual Fire Insurance, the appellate court ruled for the first time that it is fair game for a district court to award an otherwise successful attorney nothing if their fee petition is “outrageous.” Less than two weeks after that ruling came down, the court further ruled in Young v. Smith that an attorney can be sanctioned and referred to the disciplinary board based on their fee petition.

This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.

To view this content, please continue to their sites.

Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Why am I seeing this?

LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.

For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]