posted April 26, 2005
Re: Deal autism case:
Hamilton County Schools, the losing defendant in this case, is liable for the plaintiff's legal fees, which will probably be several hundred thousand dollars.
It's no wonder that the law firms representing the schools advised the continued appeal of the case. Remember, the schools are good for another half a million for the Supreme Court appeal.
What is interesting is that the plaintiff's attorneys could easily make the case that they could have generated fees at the same rate as the schools' attorneys; we, the taxpayers, could get stuck for another two or three million dollars
Also, the statements coming from Joe Fisher at the state Board of education should be taken with an immense "grain of sale." There is absolutely nothing "precedent setting" about the Deals' requests. It is common practice for Tennessee's Department of education to support the defendants in these cases. It's a form of job protection; the disabled children come and go, aging out of the schools. But, the school administrations stay around.
And, thank you Rhonda Thurman for injecting a little common sense and good judgment in these cases.
Steve Daugherty Sr.
stevedaugherty48@bellsouth.net
P.S.
The first, and most significant point, is that the Administrative Law decision. in favor of the family, now stands as law. The sixth circuit didn't remand the case for a re-hearing at the federal level, but they said that Al Edgar simply erred.
Now the Hamilton County schools have to pay the family's legal fees.
The school system has adopted a dual strategy of both appealing, while, at the same time, they try to negotiate the settlement with the family's attorneys. The idea here is to threaten the family with more legal expenses, since the school system has unlimited finances available. The schools hope that the family's attorneys fees can be negotiated down, under the threat of more litigation.
So, the real story is that HCS is threatening the family with an expensive appeal, in the hope of forcing a reduced settlement of the plaintiffs' legal fees.
Some of that "Character Education" might be needed here!
Hamilton County has done this for at least 20 years.
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