No win no fee news
02/01/2008
Record payday for successful law firms

No win no fee class action lawyers who on behalf of cheated shareholders successfully pursued litigation against Tyco International have been awarded the single largest payout of legal fees in history.

The no win no fee lawyers have been awarded half-a-billion US dollars (approx. £232 million), around 14.5% of the shareholders' payout, by a US District judge who ruled that the sum appropriately reflected the cost, length and difficulty of the compensation claim.

On reaching his decision, the judge commented, "This was an enormously complex case, and counsel assumed substantial risk in pursuing it. The number of mergers and acquisitions that were scrutinized and the novelty and difficulty of the legal issues that were presented leave this case with few comparable precedents."

Divided between the three separate law firms who represented the compensation claim, it comfortably beats the previous sum of $366 million, which was awarded to no win no fee lawyers who represented claimants seeking damages from the collapsed telecoms company WorldCom.