A personal injury lawyer who won a lawsuit against Provident Life & Accident Insurance Co. for disability benefits faced a significant setback as the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit denied his request for attorneys’ fees. The lawyer sought over $250,000 in fees but failed to provide adequate support for the amount requested, the appellate court ruled on Tuesday in an unpublished opinion.
Despite acknowledging Provident’s “highly culpable course of conduct” in its repeated attempts to avoid paying the lawyer’s disability benefits, the court maintained that the fee request needed to be sufficiently substantiated. The case highlights the rigorous standards applied to attorneys’ fee petitions, even when underlying conduct by the opposing party supports the claim.
The full article detailing the court’s decision can be found on Bloomberg Law: Disabled Lawyer Loses Attorneys’ Fee Appeal Against Provident.