A federal judge has granted more than $250,000 in legal fees to lawyers who won more than $500,000 for land title examiners and abstracters—sometimes called “deed dogs”—in a federal wage-and-hour suit.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Batten issued the $768,823 judgment—including the March jury award and legal fees—on June 9.

The 14 plaintiffs were employees of a Canton title search company who claimed they had been forced to work unpaid overtime or risk losing their jobs, said their lawyer, Paul Chichester of The Buckley Law Firm in Atlanta. The verdict included nearly $66,000 for 1,830 unpaid overtime hours by lead plaintiff Chip Eason.

Cheryl Legare, a former member of the Buckley firm who is now with Legare, Attwood & Wolfe, was co-counsel in the litigation.