July 03, 2024
An Illinois federal judge overseeing sprawling antitrust litigation against broiler chicken producers awarded class counsel more than $51.6 million in attorney fees in a $181 million deal for chicken buyers after the initial $57 million award was tossed by the Seventh Circuit last year, according to an order Wednesday.
June 14, 2024
An Illinois federal judge on Friday rejected a Burford subsidiary's bid to block a global protein price-fixing settlement that Pilgrim's Pride and Sysco memorialized through email but never signed on paper, saying it's clear the parties reached a material agreement.
June 03, 2024
Boston Market, Golden Corral and other restaurants have urged an Illinois federal judge to reject a class of chicken buyers' attempt to lock in $75 million in price-fixing settlements, continuing their fight to preserve a bid-rigging claim they argue should not be released.
May 28, 2024
Direct chicken buyers who have inked more than $284 million in price-fixing settlements defended their counsel's request for more than $37 million in what would be their third payout in the massive case, saying the request is consistent with both precedent and past experience.
May 02, 2024
Direct broiler chicken purchasers who've inked more than $284 million in price-fixing settlements are asking an Illinois federal judge for more than $37 million in what would be a third distribution of fees and reimbursed costs to their co-lead counsel in the massive case.
March 26, 2024
An Illinois federal judge overseeing a sprawling antitrust litigation against broiler chicken producers said he couldn't rule on class counsel's renewed bid for a $57 million attorney fee award thrown out by the Seventh Circuit last year without more information on one of the firm's graduated fee arrangements in a similar 2015 antitrust case, which wasn't disclosed in the first go-around.
March 22, 2024
An Illinois federal judge on Thursday agreed to allow an affiliate of legal investment firm Burford Capital to substitute for food giant Sysco in price-fixing litigation against broiler chicken producers, a ruling that comes a month after a Minnesota federal judge refused to allow the same Burford unit to substitute for Sysco in similar pork and beef price-fixing litigation.
March 15, 2024
Direct chicken purchasers who lost a price-fixing trial against Sanderson Farms cannot have another shot at bringing their case to a jury because their first trial was fair, and their circumstantial evidence couldn't defeat the company's competing proof, an Illinois federal judge has ruled.
March 07, 2024
A class of direct purchasers effectively threw in the towel Wednesday on continuing with class price-fixing claims against Perdue Farms, Claxton Poultry and others, cutting deals that abandon attempts to revive the allegations and allow the buyers to avoid up to $1 million in legal costs they might have owed the major chicken producers.
February 01, 2024
An Illinois federal judge should reject thousands of chicken buyers' bid for either judgment or a retrial after a jury rejected their price-fixing accusations because ample evidence supported the verdict "and it is not a close call," Sanderson Farms argued Thursday.