Legal fees in Alabama's landmark gay marriage case excessive, state says (AL Whine!)

[Photographer]

The Mobile attorneys who successfully litigated Alabama's landmark gay marriage decision are asking for an excessive amount of legal fees and costs related to the case, according to the state.

Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange said in an Oct. 21 filing in the U.S. District Court of Mobile that the nearly $200,000 in reimbursable costs claimed by the two attorneys is "excessive in light of the work performed and the results achieved."

"The fee they claim is entirely excessive and should be cut dramatically," the filing states.

Instead, Mobile attorneys Christine Hernandez and David Kennedy – who sought a $275 hourly rate – should be reimbursed about $50,000, according to the filing. The state's figure factors in a $150 hourly fee that it claims is more "reasonable" for lesser experienced attorneys working in a smaller practice.

http://www.al.com/news/mobile/index.ssf/2015/11/landmark_gay_marriage_legal_fe.html

Talk about sour grapes.

[randys1]

1. If this is to reimburse the attorneys representing the Gay couple, then I say pay them the

full amount and build a god damn monument to them.

[Fred Sanders]

4. Good point. The winning attorneys should be given punitive personal costs against the A.G.

as well, not by the taxpayers who should be outraged over their state government's wasteful spending.

[Gothmog]

2. Just wait until Alabama starts paying legal fees on its voter id law

The DOJ and the private plaintiffs will run up some good fees on that case and the Alabama has no real defense to this lawsuit

[gratuitous]

3. I don't know

An hourly rate of $275 would be a pretty good bargain in a lot of areas of the country. I don't know about Mobile, AL, but I'd be willing to bet that some of the larger business concerns would love to cut their legal eagles down to $275 an hour.

As for the work performed and the results achieved (standard factors in any attorney fee award petition), I'd say that winning marriage equality in Alabama is a pretty nifty accomplishment, one that any attorney would be quite pleased to add to a resume. The AG has to fight it, of course, but this really looks like one of those cases where the response to the attorney fee petition should lead off with "Pay to the Order of."