The attorneys who prevailed in the lawsuit challenging the state's gay-marriage ban asked Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza on Thursday to make the state and county defendants pay them at least $500,000 for their work, an amount both "reasonable" and "substantial."
"The fees sought ... are reasonable and in line with what other attorneys customarily would receive in litigation where payment is contingent on the outcome of the case and not certain even then," the lawyers state in the pleading. "Given the time demands and complexity of the legal issues involved in the case, its monumental nature and its impact on the lives of many thousands of Arkansans and their constitutional rights, a substantial fee award is justified."
State lawyers responded immediately, calling the request premature at best, considering Piazza's decision to overturn the same-sex marriage prohibitions is on appeal to the Arkansas Supreme Court. They've asked him to wait to make a decision until the high court rules.
It is unknown when the high court will make that ruling. The transcript of the proceedings in Piazza's court has not been filed, which will start the clock on when the sides submit their written arguments. It's a process expected to take months, if not a year.
But if Piazza doesn't want to wait until the Supreme Court's decision, the state's lawyers want him to make the plaintiffs' attorneys show evidence to support their request, with the possibility of having a hearing on the question of payment, court filings show.
"The plaintiffs have requested approximately $354,605 in attorneys fees alone, and the plaintiffs have asked the court to multiply that number by 1.5 or 2," reaching at least $531,908, Assistant Attorney General Colin Jorgensen wrote in his four-page response. "The plaintiffs have offered no affidavits, no fee statements, no statements of accounts, no evidence whatsoever to support their claim for attorneys' fees."
The six-page plaintiffs' petition contends that the plaintiffs' lawyers gave up more than $350,000 worth of work and together spent more than 1,400 hours to develop their case. The only way expensive, time-consuming litigation can be pursued is by working on contingency, the lawyers claim in their filing. Also, the judge granted them everything they had sought in the lawsuit, which included fees and expenses, according to the petition.
"The case was undertaken by both law firms with the attorneys knowing that there was no hope of compensation for their services unless they won the case. Even then, there was and is no assurance that they would receive compensation for the time devoted to the case," the pleading states.
Case law at the federal and Arkansas supreme courts has established grounds for attorneys to seek payment at an enhanced hourly rate to compensate for the risks they take with such litigation, the filing states.
The two main lawyers contend that they are entitled to the fees in part because of their experience and abilities. Both represent small law firms that have devoted significant resources to the case, which forced them to have to pass up lucrative opportunities, the filing states.
"The case required substantial devotion of attorney and staff hours from the two small law firms involved. This precluded the lawyers from working on other cases where they could have been compensated at their standard hourly rates," the petition states. "The time spent on the lawsuit by the two firms literally cost those two firms the amount of billable hours estimated above."
The payment petition seeks $256,060 for lawyer Cheryl Maples, who initiated the lawsuit last summer less than a week after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act and granted federal recognition to same-sex married couples.
Maples, in practice for 27 years, typically charges $250 an hour and spent slightly more than 1,024 hours over the 11 months of litigation, the filing states. She is also asking for $3,243.85 in expenses.
Maples' co-counsel Jack Wagoner is seeking $98,545 in fees.
He typically charges $295 per hour and spent nearly 202 hours, for a total of about $59,450 on the case, according to the filing. Another $39,095 would pay for the lawyers who work for him -- Angela Mann, Keith Pike and Sarah Cowen -- who put in more than 223 hours, usually billed at $175 per hour. Wagoner is seeking $3,551.26 in expenses.
The plaintiffs are 21 same-sex couples, including eight who were legally married in other jurisdictions and a single woman seeking to divorce a spouse she married in New York. The defendants are the state departments of Health, and Finance and Administration, along with the county clerks in Pulaski, White, Lonoke, Conway, Saline and Washington counties, where some of the plaintiffs have been refused marriage licenses.
The first same-sex marriage in Arkansas occurred on May 10 at the Carroll County Courthouse in Eureka Springs. Hundreds of weddings followed, many of them at the Pulaski County Courthouse in Little Rock where clergy members volunteered to perform the ceremonies after the gay couples obtained marriage licenses.
Marriage licenses were issued to same-sex couples in Arkansas for a week -- from the day after Piazza's ruling May 9 until May 16, when the high court issued a stay. During that week only a few counties, mostly those listed as defendants in the lawsuit -- issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Gay marriage is prohibited in 33 states, and each ban is being challenged in court. Since the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on the federal Defense of Marriage Act, judges in 21 states have ruled that their states' gay-marriage bans are unconstitutional. Three such decisions have occurred since Piazza invalidated the Arkansas law three weeks ago.
Piazza ruled that Arkansas' prohibition, enacted through statute in 1997, and a state constitutional amendment approved by voters in 2004, violate guarantees of equal protection under the state and federal constitutions.
Metro on 05/30/2014