Yeagley

MEMORANDUM

This court may review a contested award of attorneys’ fees despite settlement of the underlying dispute; the prevailing party has no obligation to make an express reservation of the right to appeal the award of attorneys’ fees. See, e.g., Lobatz v. U.S. W. Cellular of Cal., Inc., 222 F.3d 1142, 1146-47 (9th Cir.2000). Nor does the language of the Settlement Agreement provide any bar to Yeagley’s pursuit of this appeal. The Settlement Agreement does not specify an agreed-upon attorneys’ fee, but rather reflects that Yeagley will limit the amount of his demand to $1.5 million or less in exchange for Wells Fargo’s agreement not to challenge an award in that amount. The Settlement Agreement contains no waiver of an appeal of the award of attorneys’ fees applicable to Yeagley.

Under a fee-shifting statute such as the FCRA, see 15 U.S.C. § 1681n(a)(3), the lodestar method is generally the correct method for calculating attorneys’ fees. Staton v. Boeing Co., 327 F.3d 938, 965 (9th Cir.2003). Although parties can request in their settlement agreement that the district court award attorneys’ fees using common-fund principles, id. at 969, 972 , the Settlement Agreement here…