The judge reduces the Napster settlement that paid 30K less lawyers

TIn the year after the Appeals Court overtook the “measuring” action solution of texts who have given huge payments, a judge now assigned those lawyers only a tiny part of their original compensation.

The Scusing 2023 Decision He rejected the agreement that hit the Napster who provided only $ 53,000 for the texts, but they paid their lawyers in the amount of $ 1.7 million. The Appeals Court said that it was very clearly “unreasonable” to fell a lawyer more than 30 times higher than the amounts that actually won for their clients.

Wednesday is a judge of a lower court that warned that warning and sharply reduced the amount paid to those who are under settlement – until 86,022 USD.

“The difference between settlement values ​​… and (legal taxes) figure … is astonishing,” Judge Jeffrey S. White wrote in the judgment, obtained Bilbord. “The court therefore considers it appropriate to reduce significantly (legal fees).”

The verdict came in class action, which submitted 2016. against Rhapsodia, which has been ribbed as Napster since then. It was one of several copyright cases to mid-2010. Year because of the failure of streaming services such as spotifying to pay mechanical author’s texts properly.

But the lawsuit – and its prospects for great payments – decreased shares of competitive class organized by the Association of National Music publishers, which eventually drained approximately 98% of possible members of class. The adoption of the Law on Modernization of Music, which has largely determined the problems that led to Litigation, further reduced the scope of the object.

When Napster finally arranged in 2019. years, he agreed to pay as much as 20 million dollars. But since a competitive lawsuit NMPA was tened the previous case, Napster ended only 52,841 USD actual texts that decided to participate.

When it came time to determine how much lawyers paid for the songs, their fees were calculated in a percentage of 20 million dollars, not actual payments – resulting in a $ 4 million award.

This outcome shocked the US Court of Ninth round, which did not rule the “small” Pesam’s payments to their lawyers: “This case is likely to make an average person to shake her head in disbelief” Kenneth K. Lee He wrote at the time.

Back to court court, prosecutors are the owner of the prosecutor (Michelman’s law firm and Robinson LLP) once again requested a large award, offering a revised request of $ 1.2 million. Even if the direct cash payment was small, claimed that their lawsuit provided “significant benefits” of the songs, including Aiding Larger NMPA holster and even help in the passage of the WMA.

But in decision on Wednesday, Judge White said that the lawyers did not allocate no more than 25 percent of the total benefits that have won for their clients. According to the revised budget, the judge put that picture at $ 358,903 – which means that the lawyers would reward only $ 86,022 to lawyers. This figure will be supplemented by the allocation of legal “costs” (separate from the prosecutorial benefits) of only $ 13,000.

One silver lining for attorneys about prosecutors? The judge also rejected arguments from the Tupster’s lawyer, who called him for lawyers not more than 25 percent of the original $ 52,841 – means only $ 13,210 of legal fees.

Attending prosecutor lawyers did not return the comment request immediately.