Attorneys Involved in the Flint Water Crisis Settlement Seek Up to $202.8M in Legal Fees
LANSING Lawyers involved in a massive settlement of civil lawsuits arising from the Flint water crisis would receive up to $202.8 million in attorney fees, plus nearly $7.2 million in expenses, under a proposal filed with a federal judge late Monday night.
Overall, attorney fees would consume about 32% of the total settlement of $641.25 million. That percentage is in line with contingency fees in civil lawsuits, but experts interviewed Monday said it is a high percentage for a “megafund” settlement like the one for Flint.
It will be up to U.S. District Judge Judith Levy, who is handling the case, to decide the attorney fee question.
The proposed fees and costs would leave about $431.3 million to be distributed to roughly 100,000 Flint residents. That’s about $4,300 per person, on average, but the settlement is designed to ensure the brunt of the settlement money — and higher average payments — would go to Flint residents who were children at the time the city’s water supply was poisoned with lead, starting in 2014.
