Friolo v. Frankel

Maryland statutes permit a court, in certain actions to collect wages allegedly due an employee or former employee, to award “reasonable counsel fees” to the plaintiff if he or she is successful in the action. The issue before us is whether, in calculating such fees, the court is required to use what has become known as the “lodestar” approach — that is, to start by multiplying the reasonable number of hours expended by the attorney on the litigation by a reasonable hourly rate and then to consider appropriate adjustments to the product of that multiplication. 1

We shall hold generally that,…