This is Why There’s No Class Litigation in Idaho: Court Grants Settlement Approval But Cuts Counsel’s Rate to $280.00 an Hour

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I don’t know why this story makes me chuckle but it does.

Let’s chat about something we rarely discuss these days—Idaho.

Nice spot. Big mountains. Big sky. Clean water. Trees. And interestingly—extremely low billable rates for lawyers.

Apparently partners in the local legal community charge about $280.00 an hour. Which seems… insane. (But many think the rates we charge in big law are the insane, so who’s to say.)

I bring up the subject of low-Idahoan legal fees because in Legere-Gordon v. Firstcredit Inc., No. 1:19-cv-360 WBS, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 104612 (D. Id. June 2, 2021)the Court severely cut the plaintiff’s lawyer’s fee proposal based upon the low hourly rates available in the Idaho legal market.

The Plaintiff’s counsel in Legere had sought north of $170k in fees as part of a TCPA class action settlement, but saw that request cut down by more than half to $74,153. This is so not because the Court thought the settlement failed to deliver value–but because the requested hourly rate was just too high. Rather, the Court found the proper hourly fee for the case was $280.00 an hour and not the ~$600 an hour plaintiff had asked for.

So, there you go. If you need a lawyer, you’ll get your money’s worth in Idaho it appears.

Relatedly, Idaho doesn’t serve as home for very many class actions–even though it is in the Ninth Circuit. I wonder why.

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Published by Eric J. Troutman

The Czar of TCPAWorld Eric Troutman is one of the country’s prominent class action defense lawyers and is nationally recognized in Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) litigation and compliance. He has served as lead defense counsel in more than 70 national TCPA class actions and has litigated nearly a thousand individual TCPA cases in his role as national strategic litigation counsel for major banks and finance companies. He also helps industry participants build TCPA-compliant processes, policies, and systems. Eric has built a national litigation practice based upon deep experience, rigorous analysis and extraordinary responsiveness. Eric and his team feel equally at home litigating multibillion dollar telecommunications class actions in federal court as they do developing and executing national litigation strategies for institutions facing an onslaught of individual TCPA matters. They thrive in each of these roles – delivering consistently excellent results – while never losing sight of the client experience. While many firms now tout TCPA expertise, Eric has been there from the beginning. He built one of the country’s first TCPA-only defense teams and began serving as national TCPA counsel for his clients nearly a decade ago. This perspective allows him to swiftly develop the right litigation strategies for dealing with recurring problems, without wasting time on tactics that are bound to fail. Eric’s rich historical perspective and encyclopedic knowledge of the TCPA landscape also make him an invaluable resource to institutional compliance teams struggling to comply with the shifting regulatory landscape. No task is too small – or too big. Indeed, Eric and his team have helped build TCPA-compliant systems and processes for some of the largest and most complex corporate entities in the country. He commonly works with in-house compliance counsel to build and implement enterprise and business-line specific TCPA solutions, performs TCPA audits and drafts and reviews proposed TCPA policies and procedures. He and his team also have the technical expertise necessary to assist call centers seeking to develop TCPA-resistant call path architecture or to modify existing telephony and software integration to better insulate from potential TCPA exposure. Eric has built a reputation for thought leadership. An avid blogger and speaker, he has been at the forefront of the industry’s effort to push for clarity and a return to sanity for the TCPA for years. He was selected to advocate for the financial services industry on important TCPA issues before the Federal Communications Commission and co-authored the nation’s only comprehensive practice guide on TCPA defense. In his spare time, Eric leads defense teams representing banks and other financial services companies in consumer finance litigation matters. He has experience representing clients in UCC, TILA, RESPA FCRA, CCRA, CLRA, FDCPA, RFDCPA and FCCPA claims, as well as in fraud and bank operations issues.

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