District Judge Appointed Special Master Because She Was Not Impressed That 53 Law Firms Were Involved.
Obviously, the Anthem data breach generated a lot of news as well as a class action filed in the Northern District of California federal court, assigned to U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh. A tentative settlement for $115 million was reached, with the proceeds going to victims, credit-card monitoring services, customers suffering out-of-pocket losses, customers who have credit-card monitoring services, as well as class counsel and administrative costs.
However, District Judge Koh was not impressed that 53 law firms were involved in the matter or that 55% of the settlement would go to attorneys/class action administrators. Based on that she, appointed Retired Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge James P. Kleinberg (now at JAMS) as a special master to review the requested fees and report back to her.
He has. In an April 24, 2018 filed report, Retired Judge Kleinberg suggested that the requested fees be reduced from $37.95 million to $28.59, about a 25% reduction based on various grounds.
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