![](https://heysocal.com/wp-content/themes/heymediadev/assets/img/logos/beacon_white.png)
![](https://heysocal.com/wp-content/themes/heymediadev/assets/img/logos/logo-white.png)
A former staff attorney for Farmers Insurance who accepted a reduced award of more than $20 million in compensatory and punitive damages in his employment suit against the company has been granted another $2.26 million in attorneys’ fees.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ruth A. Kwan issued her ruling Friday. The judge had heard arguments on plaintiff Andrew Rudnicki’s motion for attorneys’ fees on Nov. 30, then took the case under submission.
Rudnicki’s lawyers had sought $6.6 million in attorneys’ fees, while Farmers’ attorneys maintained the plaintiff was entitled to no more than $1.05 million.
In his lawsuit filed in August 2016, Rudnicki alleged he was fired in 2016 because he was blamed for the adverse results of a gender inequity suit against Farmers and due to complaints about him to the human resources department, according to his court papers. Rudnicki was a witness in the gender case. His firing ended a 37-year career with the insurer.
In December 2021, a jury that had awarded Rudnicki $5.4 million in compensatory damages deliberated for a short time before issuing a punitive damages award to the 70-year-old plaintiff, ordering Farmers Insurance Exchange and Farmers Group Inc. to each pay $75 million.
The second phase of the trial to determine Rudnicki’s punitive damages was triggered when the jury concluded that an officer, director or managing agent of at least one of the defendants acted with malice, oppression or fraud against Rudnicki.
Last June, Rudnicki agreed to take a reduced punitive damages award of $18.9 million rather than allow Farmers to have a retrial of the case. Kwan had given Rudnicki the choice of the two options because the judge had found the $150 million in punitive damages to be excessive.
In a sworn declaration, Rudnicki said that after his firing he felt “crushed and experienced shock, depression and embarrassment for a long time thereafter. I also endured fitful sleep and loss of appetite for at least three or four months.”
In their court papers, Farmers attorneys argued the evidence was insufficient to prove Rudnicki’s claims. The insurer’s lawyers also maintained that the plaintiff’s attorneys “paraded a series of positive character references falsely portraying Rudnicki as a champion of women’s rights” while the Farmers attorneys “were forced to sit on the sideline.”
We are able to provide high-quality political journalism to you for free thanks to our advertisers. So that you can continue to enjoy HEYSOCAL's in-depth reporting, we ask that you please turn off your ad blocker and come on in, free of charge.
Subscribe to our newsletter for this giveaway and many more. Also, stay in the loop for SoCal news and updates.
Your subscription has been confirmed. You've been added to our list and will hear from us soon.
Your request has been confirmed! We will get in touch with you shortly.
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Essential Cookies should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.
This website uses Google Analytics to collect anonymous information such as the number of visitors to the site, and the most popular pages.
Keeping this cookie enabled helps us to improve our website.
Please enable Essential Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!
You can find more information about our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy