Nilsen v. York County
United States District Court for the District of Maine
400 F. Supp. 2d 266 (2005)
Nilsen (plaintiff) brought a class action against York County (defendant) on behalf of arrestees strip-searched at the county jail without reasonable suspicion, resulting in a $3.3 million common-fund settlement; class counsel, who had negotiated a one-third contingency fee with Nilsen before the case became a class action, requested 30 percent of the fund ($990,000) in fees, though the lodestar method would have produced only about $520,000.
Whether a court awarding attorneys' fees from a class-action common-fund settlement should set the percentage based on the lodestar calculation of hours worked, or based on what the attorneys would command for similar representation in the free market.