In a filing Tuesday, Aug. 20, the Gibson vs. NAR plaintiff attorneys—which includes the Burnett trial’s Michael Ketchmark—requested the court grant them one-third of the $110.6 million settlement pool (which equates to $36.8 million) as payment for their legal fees and work on the case.
Specifically, the filing stated that “Class Counsel respectfully request that the Court approve a fee of one-third of the Settlement Fund, reimbursement of current expenses in the amount of $13,147,775.19 that have not already been reimbursed in prior settlements, and service awards of $10,000 to each of the new Gibson Settlement Class Representatives.”
The requested amount of $36.8 million is, as the filing states, supported by the precedent of the “well-established Eighth Circuit law,” which suggests that attorney’s fees are calculated based on a percentage of the fund that is recovered due to their efforts in contingent cases. According to the filing, this process “incentivizes counsel to continue pursuing additional claims beneficial to the class even where, as here, counsel have already obtained substantial recoveries for the class. And it also avoids disincentivizing early settlements that may be benefit the class.”
The plaintiff attorneys argue in the filing that they invested “more than 105,000 hours of work” and “over $13 million of their own money” in the case, as well as assuming “significant risk.” As the filing states, “There was no roadmap of previous cases or settlements, and no assistance from governmental entities or regulators through parallel litigation.”
The Gibson case was originally filed almost immediately after the Burnett verdict came in, preceding the onslaught of Burnett copycat cases. Gibson also received a trial date of Nov, 8, 2027 back in July for defendants who have not settled.
Despite the fact that the case was previously combined with Umpa vs. NAR, the Gibson settlement pool is separate from Umpa as well as Burnett and Moehrl, the original home-seller commission lawsuits. It is comprised of settlements from Compass ($57.5 million), The Real Brokerage ($9.25 million), Realty ONE Group ($5 million), At World Properties ($6.5 million), Douglas Elliman ($7.75 million), Redfin ($9.25 million), Engel & Volkers ($6.9 million), HomeSmart Holdings ($4.7 million) and United Real Estate ($3.75 million).
The plaintiff attorneys’ filing points to the settlements as a mark of their success and an argument in favor of their proposal. “Class Counsel are a diverse group of well-respected antitrust, complex litigation, and trial lawyers who spearheaded the litigation. In doing so, Class Counsel were not able to rely on any governmental prosecutions or on preexisting litigation by other private attorneys,” the filing states. “These settlements are the independent product of their wholly contingent, risky, costly and time intensive work seeking a recovery against Defendants, not the work of anyone else.”
