A legal saga involving Google LLC and its Chrome’s “Incognito” mode took an interesting turn as a group of lawyers who settled a class action over privacy concerns are unlikely to receive the full $217 million in attorneys’ fees they requested. This determination came during a hearing in Oakland federal court, where Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers expressed her skepticism about the fee multiplier of 3.5 sought by the plaintiffs’ attorneys.
The case, which spanned over four years, reached an accord in April, just before it was set to go to trial. Despite the resolution, financial rewards for the plaintiffs were not part of the settlement. The finer details of the case can be explored further here.
Judge Gonzalez Rogers didn’t just question the steep fee multiplier but also showed little support for Google’s request to reduce the plaintiffs’ attorney fees by 25%. Notably, the judge criticized Google’s legal team for suggesting she personally review thousands of time sheet entries submitted by the plaintiffs’ attorneys.
This development is part of an ongoing trend of judicial scrutiny on attorney fee requests in high-profile settlements, emphasizing a closer look at proportional fairness and transparency in legal processes.