Alabama man gets $1,000 in police settlement, his lawyers get $459,000

$100,000 for payment and $359,000 for fees? So they got $459,000 for payment? Kind of fricked up.

1983 providing a vehicle for attorneys fees can be a double edged sword. In other cases, the plaintiff loses a third of his award to attorneys. In these cases, the plaintiff gets the full amount and the municipality pays all their fees separately whatever they are. Obviously, this is an egregious example of how it can go wrong, though.

$100,000 is costs, so the actual expenses incurred in litigation, such as experts, depositions, hospital bills they paid on his behalf, etc.

1983 litigation is all I do. You'll sometimes see a settlement figure to the plaintiff, or even a judgment, and the understanding is that the attorneys file a motion for costs and fees afterwards. So it may not be until 6 months later that you see the motion for fees, which is typically reduced by the Court based on hourly rate and duplication of effort. I've had plenty of cases where a settlement for $15,000 will be agreed upon and the attorneys will come afterwords asking for $500,000 plus in costs and fees. Most of those end up in the $45-50,000 range after it's all done, since one of the factors the judges are supposed to consider is the extent of success in the litigation.

Would love to pick your brain. If you ever come to B'ham lunch is on me.

So the taxpayers are paying lawyers $459,000 for a law suit from a guy who's in prison anyway?

fricking lawyers.

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So, is your beef that a prisoner gets to sue, or that his lawyers get paid for it?


BTW, pretty sure this is what that case stemmed from.

Stop resisting!

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Yeh, those cops deserved everything they got. They just beat the shite out of an unconscious person

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I can't blame them for being pissed since he just ran over a cop, but that was definitely excessive.

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Oh no doubt. I understand why they are mad. But you just cant do that