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Winning in court and making your opponent pay the lawyer fees is one hell of an “I told you so” — and that goes double when you get to stick it to a state along the way. Unfortunately for our plaintiffs, Florida isn’t known for taking losses gracefully — especially not a six-figure one. The Sunshine State’s lack of enthusiasm for covering the tab could have spillover effects for future litigants. From Reuters:
Florida is challenging a judge’s ruling that the state must cover legal fees for University of Florida professors who sued the state, giving a U.S. appeals court a new chance to assess how courts should determine when losing adversaries must pay for their opponents’ lawyers.
Attorneys for Florida in a court filing on Tuesday said they intend to ask the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to weigh the appropriateness and the size of the $372,000 award that was granted last week.
The reason for such a high price tag? Plaintiffs hired Debevoise & Plimpton to litigate their case. And even though the price was discounted, billing $450 an hour for about 1400 hours adds up to a larger tab than Florida was expecting. That’s what they get for not letting professors testify as expert witnesses — that’s definitely some side income worth fighting for!
If you’d like to follow up on developments in this case, you can find them under Sharon Wright Austin et al v. University of Florida Board of Trustees et al, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, No. 1:21-cv-00184-MW-HTC.
Florida Appeals $372K Legal-Fee Award To Profs Who Sued State [Reuters]
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s. He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.
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