Reply #41: Tort reform wouldn't help at all [View All]

[huskerlaw]

that would limit the amount of money the employees could get in damages, not the percentage of the damages the lawyers could claim.

The thing that most people don't understand is how much time and resources lawyers spend on cases like this. Think about it...they've been fighting this for 9 years already and there's no end in sight. A class action certification just means that now the case can be filed. They're still going to have to go back and have a trial, the results of which will certainly be appealed...potentially up to the Supreme Court. They're easily looking at spending 12-15 years on this case. Now do the math...let's conservatively say there are 10 lawyers working on this case, in varying capacities. Each lawyer normally bills at, say, $250/hour (in California, that's dead cheap). So each hour, these 10 lawyers would otherwise be making a total of $2500, were they getting paid at their regular rate. How many hours do you think they could have billed over 12 years? Multiply that by $2500 and you're into the millions EASILY. Now figure in the paralegal's salary, the research costs (which enters the thousands of dollars daily, easily, between the cost of Westlaw and/or Lexis and the salary of the librarian if they're lucky enough to have one), plus all of the other overhead a law firm has (rent on a suite or building in California, etc), the costs associated with filing the paperwork, etc. and their "windfall" starts to look reasonable in a big hurry.

I get that when it's taken out in one big chunk it looks like the lawyers are walking away with a windfall, but that's typically not the case. They're risking not getting paid ANYTHING for 12-15 YEARS of work, should they lose...or getting paid very little, should they not get a large settlement. Meanwhile, the Wal-Mart lawyers are getting paid their normal hourly rate, so they have absolutely not problem dragging this on for well over a decade.