By Joseph Hanna, of Goldberg Segalla
Lawyers for the plaintiffs in the O’Bannon case have filed an amended billing filing on October 22 to seek approximately $50 million in attorneys’ fees and other related costs.
The filing is a revision of what the lawyers filed back in August pursuant to U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken’s decision that the plaintiffs “shall recover their costs from the NCAA.”
The original request that totaled more than $52.4 million was filed within 14 days of the judgment to comply with the local court rules. Although both sides indicated that they needed more time to evaluate attorneys’ fees and costs, Judge Wilken did not extend the 14-day window to file the billing submissions. However, in early September, Judge Wilken issued an order allowing the plaintiffs’ lawyers to amend their request by October 22.
In the amended filing, the plaintiffs’ lawyers asked the court to consider “an upward adjustment” of the final amount because they faced “an exceptional risk of defeat and [were] required to [invest]a tremendous amount of time and labor that in turn precluded other employment.”
Further, the lawyers noted that the new total still did not include any fees or costs related to the mediation and settlement with Electronic Arts (EA) and Collegiate Licensing Co. (CLC) who were the other originally named defendants with NCAA in the O’Bannon case.
In response to the original submission, the NCAA argued that the plaintiffs’ lawyers were only entitled to “the limited legal claims” that Judge Wilken ruled in favor of the plaintiffs. The NCAA has until December 23 to response to the revised filing.
