"A mixed ruling on bonuses for lawyers" by Washington Post | April 22, 2010
WASHINGTON — A group of public interest lawyers learned yesterday that the Supreme Court giveth, and the Supreme Court taketh away.
So they are GODS now, huh?
On the one hand, all nine members of the court decided that civil rights lawyers who achieve extraordinary results on behalf of the dispossessed are entitled to a bonus for their good work.
On the other hand, five of the justices were not convinced that a children’s rights group and a private law firm, which together won a transformation of Georgia’s dysfunctional foster-care system, deserved the $4.5 million bonus they received from the federal judge who oversaw the case. The majority sent the case back for another review of whether the lawyers should get that much.
The Supreme Court often reviews the work of lawyers who have done their job poorly. But in this case, the question was how to encourage public interest lawyers and private law firms to take on poor clients or those pressing civil rights claims, and how to reward those who do.
US District Judge Marvin Shoob calculated the work done by the Children’s Rights group and an Atlanta law firm and ordered the state to pay them $6 million. He also awarded them a bonus of 75 percent, bringing the total to $10.5 million.
Georgia balked at paying the bonus and appealed, saying neither federal law nor Supreme Court precedent allowed such ”enhancements.”
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