Children in the Georgia foster-care system and their next friends (plaintiffs) filed a class action against the Governor of Georgia and other state officials (defendants) for deficiencies in the foster-care system that violated plaintiffs’ federal and state constitutional and statutory rights. The parties entered into a consent decree, which the federal district court approved, and which resolved all issues other than the fees that plaintiffs’ attorneys were to receive under 42 U.S.C. § 1988. Plaintiffs submitted a request for more than $14 million in attorneys’ fees, half of which was based on the traditional ‘lodestar’ calculation of the hours worked multiplied by standard hourly rates. The remaining half sought represented a fee enhancement
