Attorneys want nearly a quarter billion of NAR, HSoA damages
Using the “one-third” formula, the plaintiffs’ lawyers are asking for more than $225 million from the two commissions settlements, plus other expenses.
Attorneys for the Sitzer/Burnett plaintiffs have filed their latest request to be paid, and they are seeking one-third of the funds from the two biggest settlements in the commissions cases.
Details: The fee request, filed on Friday, Sept. 13, applies to the settlements reached by the National Association of Realtors and HomeServices Of America.
NAR and the brokerage giant agreed to pay the largest amounts of all the defendants who have settled to date, with combined damages totaling just under $680 million. Attorneys for the plaintiffs have requested one third of that sum — more than $225 million.
In addition to taking a cut of the settlement fund, the lawyers also requested more than $16 million to cover current out-of-pocket expenses accrued during their work on the case.
A growing fund: The settlement breakdown includes $418 million coming from NAR, $250 million from HomeServices and about $11.3 million from the MLSs and brokerages that chose to opt in to the settlement, plus interest. That opt-in amount is expected to increase as more settlements are finalized.
According to the court documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri last week, the total settlement fund is now just under $998.38 million. Using the one-third formula, that could put attorney fees at nearly $333 million.
This latest fee request will be finalized at the settlement hearing for NAR and HomeServices, which is scheduled for Nov. 26.
The justification: Attorneys reiterated the arguments used in previous requests for payment, noting that one-third of the settlement fund is a typical amount for fees in class-action suits, particularly in cases with a high degree of difficulty and no guarantee of success.
The attorneys claim in the Sept. 13 filing that they've invested more than 107,500 hours of work through the end of August.
In a separate filing giving an opinion about the attorney fees, legal expert Robert Klonoff noted that the legal team "engaged in extensive fact and expert discovery" in both the Sitzer/Burnett and Moehrl cases over a five-year period.
"Based on the extraordinary results achieved by class counsel, I believe that a 1/3 fee award is reasonable for all of the pending settlements," Klonoff said.
What will home sellers actually receive? There are still too many unknowns to pinpoint an exact figure, but the range could be in the tens, to hundreds, of dollars. One key factor will be the return rate for claim notices — typically, fewer than 10% of eligible class members send in a claim, and often that figure is less than 1%.