Lawyers who represented chicken customers have been awarded $51.6 million in fees by a judge handling the price-fixing case.
The buyers who filed a class-action lawsuit accused some of the largest poultry processors in the United States of conspiring to artificially inflate chicken prices.
In May, the class requested an additional $37 million from producers to pay lawyer fees. They had already won $284.6 million in settlements from the processors.
They reached settlements with 13 processors including Fieldale Farms ($2.3 million), Peco Foods ($5 million), George’s Poultry ($4 million), Amick Farms ($4 million), Pilgrim’s Pride ($75 million), Tyson Foods ($79.3 million), Mar-Jac Poultry ($8 million), Harrison Poultry ($3.3 million), Simmons Foods ($8 million), Mountaire Farms ($15.9 million), O.K. Foods ($4.9 million), House of Raeford Farms ($27.5 million) and Koch Foods ($47.5 million).
That's not chicken feed. But, on the other hand, they might have lost.