CITY vs SONICS TRIAL IN SEATTLE AND ATTORNEY FEES
Posted by Paul Luvera at 6/25/2008 6:47 AM and is filed under uncategorized 
The lawsuit by the City against the Sonics basketball club has been tried to a federal judge without a jury for the past week. The Seattle PI today points out that the lease, which is the subject of the controversy, had a clause requiring the loser to pay attorney fees and costs. The paper reports that former senator Slade Gorton is being paid at $685 per hour to advise the city and their trial lawyer Paul Lawrence is paid at $420. It says Gorton is an advisor at trial. There are other associate lawyers assisting as well. It notes that the City had already paid the Gorton firm $1 million for advisory work. It notes that the City's sports expert was paid $17,753. The Sonic's group paid $100,000 for a public survey to show community attitudes. Keep in mind this was a one week non jury contract dispute. I doubt these facts will improve public attitudes about lawyers and their costs. This illustrates the illogic of tort reformers whose real goal is to keep poor people from hiring lawyers since the rich and powerful have no problem financing their litigation, but want no restrictions on them - only on those who want to sue the rich and powerful. When we read about these huge multi million dollar verdicts they most often involve one huge corporation suing another in commerical litigation rather than some poor injured person trying to get justice.
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