Fees Awarded To Plaintiffs’ Lawyers in Flint Water Settlement Are Unfair and Outrageous

MiLAW president, Bob Dorigo Jones, speaking in opposition to the proposed lawyers’ fees at a rally at the Flint Courthouse in July, 2021.

Northville, Mich. – February 4, 2022 – Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch (MiLAW) president, Bob Dorigo Jones, today blasted the record-breaking amount of fees awarded to the plaintiffs’ lawyers in the Flint Water Settlement. Legislation is now needed to protect Michigan citizens in future lawsuits against the state.

“The people of Flint have been victimized again, this time by the decision of the federal judge to give their lawyers more than $180 million from the settlement with the State of Michigan,” said Dorigo Jones. “Judge Judith Levy entirely rejected the arguments for lower fees made by experienced and respected national public-interest attorneys representing some individual Flint residents pro bono. Because of that, tens of millions of dollars that should be going toward medical care and other needs of the victims in Flint will be going to lawyers.”

According to attorney Ted Frank, founder of the Center for Class Action Fairness, “The court’s opinion is regrettably opaque, because it hides the total amount of what the attorneys will be getting, but it will be well over $180 million.” 

“It’s not fair to the people of Michigan who are ultimately paying for this settlement and want to see the money go to things like health care, not expensive cars or airplanes for lawyers,” added Dorigo Jones.  “The judge’s 99-page order released today makes it very difficult for anyone who isn’t a legal expert to see how much money will really go to the lawyers. For instance, if we focus just on percentages like the 25 percent fee that is mentioned in the order, we miss other important ways the lawyers will be paid in addition to that.

“We believe one of the main reasons the lawyers are getting so much money and shortchanging the people of Flint is that Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel refused to challenge the fees. When negotiating the historic settlement, Nessel agreed to include language commonly referred to in legal circles as a ‘clear sailing clause.’ The clause allowed the lawyers’ fee request to sail through the legal process with no opposition from the attorney general or her office. It’s mindboggling why she would essentially put a gag order on herself, but that’s exactly what she did.”

A co-lead class counsel in the Flint Water Settlement, Michael Pitt, who stands to receive one of the top payouts in this case, was a large political contributor to Nessel’s first campaign for attorney general. According to records at the Michigan Secretary of State’s office, he contributed the maximum amount, $5,400 to Nessel in 2018.

“The State of Michigan now faces the possibility of similar massive lawsuits because of lead found in the water in Benton Harbor, the 2020 flood in Midland, and even over the way it handled the placement of senior citizens in nursing homes where they eventually contracted COVID-19. In an effort to protect the interests of the victims and the taxpayers in those cases, MiLAW supports House Bill 5647 which was recently introduced in the Michigan House of Representatives,” said Dorigo Jones.

HB 5647, introduced by Representative Andrew Fink, will effectively prohibit clear sailing clauses in the future by requiring the Michigan attorney general to take a public position on the fairness of fees requested by plaintiffs’ lawyers in multi-million-dollar lawsuits against the state. 

“We urge legislative leaders to give this important bill a hearing as soon as possible,” said Dorigo Jones.