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	Attorneys Fees in Covington Sex Abuse Case Similar to Other Deals By Brett Barrouquere The Associated Press, carried in Kentucky.com March 15, 2006 http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/local/14106643.htm LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Even though nearly a third of what he'll receive in a sex abuse settlement from the Catholic Church will go to his attorneys, Dr. Robert Loheide sees it as a bargain. "It's worth all of it, every penny," Loheide said. Loheide is one of 389 people taking part in an $85 million class-action settlement with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington. The attorneys in the case have asked for 30 percent of the settlement - about $25.5 million - as their contingency fee for ending one of the larger sex abuse cases in the country. Two law professors say the attorneys' fees in that settlement and many other class-action suits are above the national average. New York University law professor Geoffrey Miller and Cornell University law professor Theodore Eisenberg researched 370 class-action settlements over a 10-year period. They published a report stating that the 30 to 40 percent fees often cited as normal by attorneys isn't backed up by evidence. Instead, they concluded that attorneys fees on average are 21.9 percent of the settlement or jury award. "Taken as a whole, the evidence suggests that one-third is the benchmark for privately negotiated contingent fees, but that significant variation up and occasional variation down exist as well," Eisenberg and Miller wrote. The level of risk involved with the case may explain the variations from the average fee, they wrote. "The presence of high risk is associated with higher fees, while low-risk cases generate lower fees." The lawsuits in the church sex abuse cases have posed a higher risk for attorneys, some of whom have charged more than 30 percent. The 57 attorneys in the $85 million settlement between 552 people and the Archdiocese of Boston took 33 percent, or about $28 million, in fees. In Louisville, a $25.7 million settlement between 243 plaintiffs and the archdiocese netted lawyers 40 percent of the money, or about $10.2 million dollars. Attorney Stan Chesley of Cincinnati, who represents the plaintiffs in the case against the Covington Diocese, said 30 percent is in line with other settlements, particularly given the complexity of the case and the financial risk the attorneys took in pursuing it. Chesley said his law firm put up more than $1 million in investigating and prosecuting the case over several years, including more than $234,000 in advertising the settlement. All the church sex abuse cases were taken on a contingency basis, meaning the attorneys were paid only if they reached a settlement or won an award from a jury. If they lost, the attorneys would receive nothing. Those percentages are worth it if they bring rogue priests to light, said Susan Gallagher, a member of the Boston-based Coalition of Catholics and Survivors. Gallagher, who settled a case in 1998 for $250,000, said law enforcement and the Catholic church haven't taken steps to help victims of sex abuse at the hands of priests, forcing them to go to private attorneys to have their cases heard. "This is our system," Gallagher said. "It's the only way we can punish them."
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