Opinion ID: 161333
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Size of Fee Award

Text: First Marine also argues that the $37,235 fee award is unreasonable given the size of the $50,005 judgment. But as the district court observed, this judgment was significantly more than the initial offer to settle the Lathams’ insurance claim. Said the court to First Marine’s lawyer: “You offered $10,000 for the longest time and then you upped that by five times and settled it; right?” Id. at 379. The intervening variable between the initial offer and the judgment, of course, was the litigation, from which, as even First Marine concedes, the Lathams emerged as the prevailing party. The district court also stated that First Marine was at least partially responsible for the “contentiousness” of the pretrial discovery, and, referring directly to counsel for First Marine, warned of its “lack of enthusiasm for your recalcitrance in this case.” Id. at 380-81, 366. Counsel for First Marine insists he was merely protecting the interests of his client. This may be so, but the client cannot escape the consequences of tactics that undeniably drive up the cost of litigation, even if such tactics amount to no more than aggressive advocacy. See City of Riverside v. Rivera , 477 U.S. 561, 580 n.11 (1986) (defendant “cannot litigate tenaciously and then be heard to complain about the time necessarily spent by the plaintiff in response”) (quotation omitted) . -8-