Oral Argument in Pearson v. NBTY, Inc.

Are you trick-and/or-treating in downtown Chicago this Halloween?

If so, visit the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit to watch oral argument in Pearson v. NBTY, Inc., No. 14-1198 (7th Cir.). That’s 9:30 a.m. in the Main Courtroom on October 31, 2014, at 219 S. Dearborn Street. Ted Frank will be arguing for appellants in full costume (i.e. business formal court attire) as The Class Action Avenger.

You can read the background about this settlement in our last post about it. Basically, it’s under $900,000 for class members, $1.1 million for third parties, and $4.5 million for plaintiffs’ lawyers. Class members also get some labeling changes to the sued-over glucosamine bottles, changes which are alleged by the plaintiffs’ lawyers to be worth $21 million. For example, instead of saying “Osteo Bi-Flex works by providing the nourishment your body needs to build cartilage, lubricate, and strengthen your joints,” the label could say “Osteo Bi-Flex works by providing the nourishment your body needs to support cartilage, lubricate, and strengthen your joints” (italics added free-of-charge). See the opening brief for what “is perhaps the best 13,000-word summary of CCAF philosophy.”

Plaintiffs, calling this settlement a “tremendous result,” cross-appealed when the district court awarded them $2.1 million in attorneys’ fees and expenses instead of $4.5 million. That $4.5 million, after all, “was negotiated at arm’s-length by the parties” and, since the requested fees were only up to 2.56 times greater than the plaintiffs’ lawyers’ billing rate for the labor they expended, the requested fees were “certainly not excessive.”

The briefing proceeded as follows: