D.C. Ordered to Pay $1M in Historic Gun Case
WASHINGTON – The District of Columbia has been ordered to pay more than $1 million in attorneys' fees as a result of a historic gun case that was ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.Now, were I Alan Gura, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the check, but it's still nice to see the courts siding with the white hats on this one. If I had to place a bet on the outcome, I would have sworn that the court was going to rule against Heller's attorney's getting anything. Of course, whether or not they ever see one red cent from the city remains to be seen.
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A federal judge on Thursday issued an opinion awarding Heller's attorneys $1,137,072.27 in fees and expenses. The attorneys had argued they should be awarded $3.1 million. Attorneys for the city said the figure should be closer to $840,000.
The Department of Education has some nice short-barreled shotguns - perhaps they could sell some of those to pay the bill...
That is all.
10 comments:
Yeah, I think the D.C. Gooberment is stupid enough to try to fight it, but even their lawyers were willing to pay out over $800,000. So they'll spend another half a million to try to push this up the Judicial Ladder to the same Court that ruled against them in first place, then end up signing the check.
But, hey, what do they care? It's all comes from the Federal Budget anyway.
So, the next time we see Alan, he better buy the First Round, because that's "Our Tax Money at Work."
Which is doubly delicious, IMHO.
Uhh... just like almsot everyone else in the gun blogger community reporting on this story, you've got it wrong.
This is a WIN for the city. They were petitioning to pay only $840,000 and got stuf with a bit over a millon... That's nothing.
The bills G&P submitted were over $3 million. Their EXPENSES were about a million; and the court reduced their bill to the absolute minimum they could get away with.
A million sounds like a lot, but it isn't. It took years, and several lawyers, clerks, aids, researchers, parallegals, messengers etc... plus a large amount of travel and other expenses.
What Chris said. Getting awarded 1 million when you earned 3 isn't a victory. The court basically said that there was absolutely nothing special about the Heller case to be worth more than the absolute minimum. How there's nothing special about a case that turned 10% of the amendments of the Bill of Rights from a dead letter to real protections, I have no idea.
Chris, I'd argue that the fact that Gura got ANYTHING is a major win.
$1.1Mil sure beats the hell out of $0 any day of the week and twice on Sunday in my book...
The city *agreed* to $840,000, Gura demanded $3.1M. $1.1M is a major victory for the city.
Okay, so Gura went from $800K to $1.1mil. That's still an increase.
I see your point - they didn't recoup the full amount - and in just about any other instance I would agree that this is a blow.
But I fully expected Gura to get nothing. Hearing that the city agreed to $800K and then wound up getting stuck with more is icing on the cake, IMHO.
No, Gura went from 3 million to 1.1 million.
You seem to think this is an award of something extra, it's not.
These are the fees that G&P earned, for the whole case, which they fought for years, through multiple courts.
This isn't an award of damages, this is being reimbursed for their billings under the loser pays system.
You're looking at the whole thing backwards.
Honest question: This is really a "loser pays" system?
I ask because I hadn't seen that listed anywhere in any of the stories that I read.
If true, then I agree wholeheartedly with you that this was a loss.
Civil rights cases are loser pays when the loser is the government. Plaintiffs are only liable for fees when the case is frivolous or brought in bad faith.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1871 is a good starting point.
In case they try not paying... put a lien on the city?
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