In 2017, 76% of all Proposition 65 Settlement Amounts Go to Pay Attorneys’ Fees and Costs

The California Office of the Attorney General recently published the its summary of all reported Proposition 65 settlements for 2017. According to the Executive Summary (http://bit.ly/2HtC2Mg) in 2017 there were 688 Proposition 65 settlements reported to Attorney General. A total of $25,767,500 were paid by alleged violators, with a whopping $19,486,362 being paid to attorneys for their fees and costs. That represents 76% of the total going to attorneys rather than to the “plaintiffs” in Prop 65 cases.

For example, the “Consumer Advocacy Group,” which is represented exclusively by the law firm of Yeroushalmi & Yeroushalmi had 30 settlements last year, amounting to $3,106,750 in payments. Of that $3,106,750, $2,640495 of it, or 85% went to the Yeroushalmi firm. The Brodsky & Smith firm, which represented a handful of putative plaintiffs, reported 115 settlements in 2017 for a grand total of $1,888,000 or which $1,727,050, or 91% went to pay attorneys fees and costs. The Chanler Group also represented several putative plaintiffs. In 2017, they had 147 settlements, for a total of $3,978,700, of which $3,356,125, or 84%, went to pay attorneys fees and costs.

These lawsuits are supposedly undertaken by “private enforcers” in the public interest, but it is hard to imagine that the public interest is served when over three-quarters of the “settlement” amounts are going straight into the law firms’ back-pockets.