Today, Citizens for Judicial Fairness condemned the Delaware Court of Chancery’s outrageous attorney fee rewards following a new academic study that exposes how fees are spiraling out of control and disconnected from any meaningful measure of risk or performance. The study from three law school professors reveals that Chancery fee awards lack consistent benchmarks and routinely overreward a small group of insider law firms, including cases where judges approved rates as high as $17,692 per hour. Following the release of the study, Citizens for Judicial Fairness released the following statement:
“This report confirms what we have been saying for years: the Chancery Court enriches a tight circle of well connected lawyers at the expense of everyday Delawareans. It is outrageous that Delaware plaintiffs’ lawyers face far less risk than their federal counterparts, yet still receive disproportionately higher payouts. There is no justification for fee awards of $345 million or $266 million, and lawmakers should not pretend otherwise.
“This study should be a wake-up call. Citizens for Judicial Fairness is calling on Delaware’s leaders to institute reforms that impose transparency and oversight on Chancery fee setting. Delaware’s reputation as the corporate capital of America is in tatters. Multiple million and billion dollar companies have cited the Chancery Court’s inconsistency and over-inflated fee awards as the reason they have moved their corporations out of Delaware, taking millions of Corporate Tax dollars away from schools and programs vital to Delawareans.
“Until changes are made, Delaware’s habit of handing out unchecked financial windfalls to insiders while sidelining stockholders and the public will continue to erode confidence in the judiciary. The people of Delaware deserve a judiciary that serves justice, not itself.”
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Delaware’s reputation as the corporate capital of America is in tatters. Multiple million and billion dollar companies have cited the Chancery Court’s inconsistency and over-inflated fee awards as the reason they have moved out of Delaware.