Brown v. Google LLC

Background

The court had previously ordered Google to pay all attorneys’ fees and costs that the plaintiffs incurred in filing their motion for sanctions based on discovery misconduct. The plaintiffs then submitted a fee and cost request, Google responded, and the plaintiffs provided additional explanations and detailed billing records for the court’s private review.

Legal standard

The court explained that a fee award imposed as a sanction under the court’s inherent authority must have a causal connection to the misconduct. Applying a “but-for” test, the plaintiffs could recover only expenses they would not have incurred without the misconduct. The court also explained that it could use reasonable estimates rather than audit every billing entry with perfect precision.

Requested amounts and deductions

The plaintiffs requested a total of $1,068,511.93, consisting of $980,827.00 in attorneys’ fees, $29,809.50 in expert fees, and $57,875.43 in additional costs. The attorneys’ fees included amounts for drafting and reviewing pleadings, preparing for and participating in hearings, and reviewing Google’s document productions.

The court deducted $22,270.50 for timekeepers who billed less than 10 hours on the sanctions motion. It deducted another $53,620.00 for time spent reviewing Google’s document productions because the plaintiffs would have performed that review even without filing the sanctions motion. The court also deducted $20,906.34 for computer research because the research was likely useful in multiple areas of the parties’ dispute and was not exclusively for the sanctions motion.

Ruling

After the deductions, Judge Susan Van Keulen awarded the plaintiffs $904,936.50 in attorneys’ fees and $66,778.59 in costs, including expert fees. The total award was $971,715.09, which Google must pay as a monetary sanction for the discovery misconduct identified in the court’s previous order. The order addressed the amount of the sanction and did not determine the underlying claims in the case.