Judge limits legal fees awarded to Flint lawyers

A judge on Friday awarded millions of dollars to a team of attorneys who handled a civil litigation case against the state of Michigan for lead contamination in the Flint water supply.

U.S. District Judge Judith Levy awarded a batch of lawyers representing around 30 legal firms an undisclosed amount of money from the settlement. But it appears they will be paid under $180 million, the Detroit Free Press reported, citing a court ruling released on Friday.

Attorney fees in the case were capped at 25 percent, slightly less than the 27 percent the lawyers had requested, according to the news outlet. The lead attorneys in the case won about $40 million from the settlement.

“The fees awarded reflect their hard and persistent work,” Levy said in her ruling, according to The Associated Press.

The agreement is the latest in a case that spanned five years after Flint’s water supply was contaminated with lead in 2014, exposing at least 99,000 residents to short-term lead poisoning, which can cause a host of health difficulties. The water contamination was also linked to a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak that killed 12 people.

A $626 million settlement in the case was finally reached in November, with the majority of the money being paid by the state of Michigan. The city of Flint, McLaren hospitals and a company called Rowe Professional Services will also be responsible for paying part of the settlement.

Most of the pot, around $400 million, will go to Flint residents and children affected by the water crisis, the AP reported.

“Every dollar awarded to the attorneys is a dollar less for the claimants,” Levy said on Friday, according to the AP. “Because of this, the court must balance society’s strong interest in paying lawyers for their work and encouraging counsel to accept similar engagements in the future with the important interest in maximizing the claimants’ monetary awards.”