Wine and Roses, Part III: District Court Sanctions Class Counsel For Improper Expense Requests

We have written a number of blog posts about Judge Quackenbush’s displeasure with certain class counsel arising from a request for an award of attorneys’ fees, costs, and expenses submitted in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington in Plumbers Union Local No. 12 Pension Fund v. Ambassadors Group Inc., No. CV-09-214 (E.D. Wash.). During hearings on the request, the Court discovered that class counsel’s declarations had misrepresented the amounts counsel actually paid out for a number of items and included what the Court considered to be inappropriate expense (click here and here to read more). Following formal disciplinary proceedings that the Court initiated against plaintiff’s counsel, the Court issued an Order of Reproval of one attorney and an Admonition to another on July 25, 2012.  Plumbers Union Local No. 12 Pension Fund v. Ambassadors Group Inc., No. CV-09-214, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 73297 (E.D. Wash. July 25, 2012). 

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