Attorney Fees.

Byline: Derek Hawkins

7th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Merle L. Royce v. Amari Company, Inc., et al.,

Case No.: 18-2850; 18-2851; 18-3725; 19-1054

Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and ROVNER and ST. EVE, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Attorney Fees

This dispute over attorney's fees has a long, tortured history. Not because it is unduly complex or involves novel legal issues, but because one of the attorneys Michael R. Needleprotracted it every step of the way. He routinely and unapologetically tested the district court's patience, disregarded court orders, and caused unnecessary delays. As a result, the district court sanctioned Needle multiple times for "obstructionist and vexatious" tactics.

The fee dispute arose only because Needle steadfastly took an objectively frivolous position that he and his co-counsel, Merle L. Royce, were entitled to the lion's sharealmost sixty percentof their clients' settlement in an underlying suit as attorney's fees. Even Royce rejected Needle's position because the plain language of the contingent fee agreement provided that attorney's fees shall be one-third of the settlement. The district court found the same, and then decided a sub-dispute over the division of the...