Huang v. Shanghai City Corp

What the Court Ordered

The trial scheduled to begin on July 12, 2022, was cancelled because the parties had reached a settlement. The material terms of the settlement were read and agreed to in open court.

The parties were directed to submit a written settlement agreement by July 22, 2022. Plaintiffs’ counsel was also directed to submit information concerning the requested attorney-fee award, along with supporting documentation if appropriate.

Attorney Fees

The court stated that merely identifying the requested fee as a proportion of the total settlement amount would not be enough. The reasonableness of the fees must be supported by adequate documentation, which ordinarily includes contemporaneous time records showing, for each attorney, the date, hours worked, and nature of the work. The order warned that insufficient documentation could result in rejection of the proposed fee award.

Settlement-Approval Hearing

The court scheduled a telephone hearing for July 29, 2022, at 11:00 a.m. to consider whether the settlement should be approved under the standards cited in the order. The order does not state that the settlement had been finally approved or that the attorney-fee award had been granted.