ARB Rules that Attorney Fee Award Need Not be Proportional to Damages Award

The Department of Labor’s Administrative Review Board (“ARB”) has affirmed an Administrative Law Judge’s decision to award a whistleblower nearly $70,000 in attorney fees and costs in a case where the whistleblower recovered $50,000 in back pay and compensatory damages.  In Collins v. Village of Lynchburg, Ohio, the Village argued that the Board should reverse the fee award of nearly $70,000 “[b]ecause the amount of the award is so large in comparison to the actual loss to [the] Complainant.”  The ARB expressly rejected this argument, concluding that “the fee in [a] whistleblower case need not be proportional to the recovery for the Complainant.”  For information on The Employment Law Group® law firm’s Whistleblower Practice, click here.

Tagged: Administrative Review Board (ARB), Enforcement Bodies