Well, I'm already interrupting my supposed hiatus. Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme court granted cert. in a case involving whether an attorney fee multiplier of 1.75 was appropriately awarded to counsel for the prevailing party in a civil rights action. Perdue v. Kenny A., case no. 08-970.
The Court's "questions presented" page for the case indicates that cert. was granted on this question:
Can a reasonable attorney's fee award under a federal fee-shifting statute ever be enhanced based solely on quality of performance and results obtained when these factors already are included in the lodestar calculation?
Potentially, this case could impact fee multipliers awarded under a variety of federal fee-shifting statutes. See this post from SCOTUSBlog for more on the case, and this post from SCOTUSBlog for links to the Eleventh Circuit's opinion below (which affirmed the fee award) and some of the briefs.
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