A settlement in the shareholder derivative litigation over Altria Group’s 2018 investment in Juul Labs was approved earlier this year, but the difficulty in getting to that point has led a federal judge in Virginia to knock $2.3 million off the plaintiffs’ request for attorney fees and costs.

In a Feb. 20 opinion, U.S. District Judge David Novak of the Eastern District of Virginia granted the plaintiffs’ motion in part and denied it in part, awarding the plaintiffs attorney fees, expenses and service awards in the amount of $15.2 million