US appeals court tosses ‘windfall’ $78 mln legal fee in T-Mobile lawsuit

A U.S. appeals court on Monday threw out a legal fee award of $78 million for plaintiffs’ lawyers in a $350 million class action settlement with T-Mobile, calling the amount a “windfall” for the effort the attorneys put into the case.

The St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 3-0 that the awarded amount was excessive based on the hours of legal work expended by the lawyers behind the consumer privacy case, which T-Mobile agreed to settle in 2022.