Attorneys’ Fees Available After Rejecting Oral Settlement Offer

Rejecting an oral settlement offer doesn’t trigger the same consequences for attorneys’ fee awards as rejecting an offer under Rule 68, the Seventh Circuit said, remanding a debt collection case for further analysis.

The district court abused its discretion in slashing the fee award to about 10% of the request based on the oral settlement offer in the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act suit, the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit said in an opinion by Judge David F. Hamilton.

Nor should the “minor nature of the violation or the limited damages recovered” be major barriers to the ...