Representing Employees Since 1997

Victory With A Landmark Decision

The Law Offices of Kevin T. Barnes obtained a significant victory for consumers and plaintiffs’ class action attorneys in a landmark California Supreme Court decision. On August 11, 2016, the California Supreme Court issued its decision, approving the use of percentage fee awards in class action cases resulting in the preservation or recovery of a “common fund” for the benefit of class members.

The Supreme Court granted review on the single issue of whether a trial court may calculate an attorney fee award from a class action common fund as a percentage of the fund, while using the lodestar-multiplier method as a cross-check of the selected percentage. Class counsel Kevin T. Barnes argued the case, which resulted in a lengthy opinion by Justice Werdegar.

Kevin Barnes also received a landmark verdict against Huntington Memorial Hospital in 2008. The precedent-setting case was tried in front of a Los Angeles Superior Court, which ruled that a nonprofit hospital cannot pay nurses two rates of pay for the same work and issued a $32,857,014.83 verdict. This case later settled for $60 million dollar lump sum. As the first dual-rate payment case tried to any court, it has affected the way other hospitals pay employees. In fact, as a result of this verdict, the Law Offices of Kevin Barnes subsequently settled a similar case against Tenet Hospital for $85 million dollars, as well as a settlement against Arcadia Methodist Hospital for $20.25 million dollars.

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