Attorneys Granted More Than $100 Million In Chicken Anti-Trust Suits

Attorneys in the massive chicken antitrust price-fixing class action lawsuits have been granted more than $100 million in legal fees.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin in the Northern District of Illinois granted $56 million in legal fees to attorneys who represented the direct buyers of chicken, such as supermarkets and food service providers, for what he called “interim attorney fees,” and reimbursement of litigation expenses and incentive awards for five named class representatives.

In a separate decision, Durkin awarded $60 million to attorneys for chicken wholesalers for their work in the lawsuit that began in 2016 alleging a price-fixing conspiracy in the chicken industry. Included in the total award are about $55.2 million in fees, $4.5 million to cover litigation expenses, and a $15,000 incentive award for each of five named plaintiffs: Maplevale Farms; John Gross and Co.; Ferraro Foods; Joe Christiana Food Distributors; and Cedar Farms Co., according to court documents.

Durkin is presiding over both proceedings, which rest on an identical legal theory: allegations the nation’s largest chicken producers hatched a plan to manipulate supply, using an insider data network to keep prices artificially high at a time their input costs were falling, especially those related to chicken feed.

In a 92-page decision in the direct-buyers case, Durkin said the firms representing plaintiffs employed 20 other law firms for assistance, for a total of 100,608 hours worked worth $50.9 million in fees.

“Appointed counsel invested massive resources of time and money when no other counsel expressed interest, with little assurance of success,” Durkin wrote. “No government investigation preceded the complaint in this case for appointed counsel to piggy-back. And plaintiffs have been opposed by many defendants, including a number of very large and well-funded corporations, which have retained some of the most prominent and sophisticated law firms in the United States.”

Eight processors have reached settlement agreements with direct purchaser plaintiffs totaling nearly $180.9 million in the broiler chicken antitrust litigation. Tyson, Pilgrim's, Mar-Jac Poultry, Harrison Poultry, Peco Foods, George's, Amick Farms and Fieldale Farms all have reached settlements.