Is it just me or does the $84,000 in legal fees for an initial award of award of $5,000 seem a bit excessive? Granted the appeal and subsequent award of $50,000 must have run up the attorney fees a bit. I hope someone at the city took a good look at the legal fees.
It was a federal claim, probably a 1983 action. If the plaintiff recovers anything in damages, they get attorney’s fees. Quite often the fees exceed the damages awarded. I don’t know about Pennsylvania, but here in Illinois, the City can’t indemnify an employee for punitive damages if the judgement was against the individual officer, so the plaintiff did better to have $50,000 in damages that can be paid by the City.
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Is it just me or does the $84,000 in legal fees for an initial award of award of $5,000 seem a bit excessive? Granted the appeal and subsequent award of $50,000 must have run up the attorney fees a bit. I hope someone at the city took a good look at the legal fees.
The lawyers are always the ones who really make out in litigation.
Can you recover costs in PA? If not, the original judgment was the better deal…
DW:
It was a federal claim, probably a 1983 action. If the plaintiff recovers anything in damages, they get attorney’s fees. Quite often the fees exceed the damages awarded. I don’t know about Pennsylvania, but here in Illinois, the City can’t indemnify an employee for punitive damages if the judgement was against the individual officer, so the plaintiff did better to have $50,000 in damages that can be paid by the City.