Plaintiff wins $1,000 in statutory damages for technical violation of Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. (Debt collector illegally used the words “credit bureau” in its business name.) After plaintiff’s lawyers seek $130k in fees, district court awards them the princely sum of $0. Fifth Circuit: Just so. While fees are ordinarily mandatory, “special circumstances” obtain here: The record suggests that the plaintiff colluded with her lawyers to generate this “outrageous” fee-heavy lawsuit in Texas instead of in her home state of Louisiana. We also deplore “the poor draftsmanship that permeates the pleadings,” the court notes (before honoring Muphry’s law with a cheekily errant hyphen in the next sentence).
