ST. LOUIS – A federal court has awarded an attorney $45,000 in legal fees in a dispute with a former client he represented in a wrongful death settlement.
District Judge John Ross of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri ruled May 16 that the attorney is entitled to the fees he requested but granted a reduced amount for costs.
Tameka Prince and her former counsel, Nuru Witherspoon of The Witherspoon Law Group, had their own legal dispute after Prince won a settlement in a consolidated wrongful death lawsuit against Roadrunner Transportation Systems Inc.
Since Prince didn’t have a binding fee agreement with Witherspoon he was allowed to file a post-hearing brief that would prove what he’s owed for attorney’s fees on a quantum meruit basis.
Witherspoon asked the court for $53,000 - $42,000 in fees plus $11,000 in costs. He said he worked a minimum of 120 hours on Prince’s case at $350 an hour, which is more than half of what he normally charges, the order stated. Witherspoon also opted to forfeit additional costs except a $3,000 non-refundable retainer that was paid to an accident reconstruction firm to look into the deadly crash at the foundation of Prince’s lawsuit against Roadrunner. He also mentioned Prince allegedly agreed that she owed Witherspoon’s law firm $8,000.
“Although Mr. Witherspoon’s quantum meruit claim lacks documentary support, there is support in the record for the court to find that he and The Witherspoon Law Group provided Ms. Prince with valuable services over a period of approximately 15 months and reached an understanding to settle the case, which Ms. Prince ultimately agreed with,” Ross wrote.
Ross determined that a fair amount for attorney’s fees for Witherspoon was $42,000. The judge also awarded Witherspoon the $3,000 retainer fee but didn’t give him the $8,000 because Witherspoon did not provide evidentiary support for that award.