Kanye West Battles Ex-Handyman Over $1.23M Attorney Fee Request

The $140,000 verdict Ye was ordered to pay his former handyman may end up being the cheaper part of the dispute. His attorneys are now fighting Tony Saxon’s request for another $1.23 million in legal fees, arguing the number bears little resemblance to what Saxon actually won at trial. In new court papers, Ye’s team asked Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brock T. Hammond to reject the request entirely. If the judge disagrees, they want the award cut to $59,425.

Saxon sued over his time working at Ye’s Malibu property, where he said he was promised $20,000 per week while overseeing the troubled renovation. He claimed he received only one weekly payment, along with money earmarked for construction costs. A jury ultimately awarded him $140,000 in March after finding Ye liable for an injury Saxon suffered while working at the home. The verdict was still a mixed one. Saxon had sought $1.7 million, and jurors rejected most of the theories presented in his case.

That split result is now central to West's argument over attorneys’ fees. His lawyers say Saxon prevailed on only one of 13 theories and are calling the $1.23 million request “unreasonably inflated.” They specifically argue that the fee demand is nearly nine times the damages jurors awarded after a claim Ye’s team says was established primarily through testimony from one physician.

Saxon’s attorneys see the math very differently. West Coast Trial Lawyers says the case required hundreds of hours of work and more than $300,000 in expenses while representing a client against a celebrity defendant who denied liability. Their earlier filing described the litigation as involving overlapping employment and labor issues, arguing that the risk and workload justify the fees they are seeking.

The March verdict has already survived one challenge. Judge Hammond denied Kanye's April attempt to overturn it, leaving the $140,000 award intact. The next fight is over how much the victory should cost him beyond the damages themselves, with an October 7 hearing scheduled on Saxon’s fee request. If Ye gets his way, a proposed seven-figure bill will shrink to less than $60,000.