Nelly has been awarded $67,586 in attorney fees after a federal judge sanctioned the lawyer who pursued a copyright lawsuit against the rapper on behalf of a former St. Lunatics bandmate.
The ruling, handed down on Thursday (May 28) by U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero in the Southern District of New York, ordered the fees to be paid not by the plaintiff – but by the plaintiff’s attorney, Precious Felder, according to the court filing, which you can read here.
The sanctions stem from a lawsuit filed in September 2024 by Ali Jones, a former member of the St. Louis rap collective, who alleged that Nelly (real name Cornell Iral Haynes Jr.) had denied him royalties and songwriting credit on the rapper’s diamond-certified 2000 debut album, Country Grammar.
