BishopAccountability.org
	Attorney Fees in Diocese Case Cut By Kevin Eigelbach The Cincinnati Post [Covington KY] May 24, 2006 http://news.kypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060524/NEWS02/605240354/1014 Attorneys for participants in a class-action lawsuit of sexual assault victims against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington won't be getting as much in fees as they had planned on. On Tuesday, Special Judge John Potter reduced attorneys' fees in the case from 30 percent to 22 percent. Stan Chesley, the Cincinnati attorney who brought the suit, took the reduction in stride. "The determination of the fees is left solely with the discretion of the court," he said. Of Potter, he said, "I respect his opinion. What I respect the most is his comments about what a fine job we did." The diocese had no comment on the reduction, spokesman Tim Fitzgerald said. The diocese and its insurance carriers have agreed to pay up to $84 million to settle the claims of at least 350 people who said they were sexually abused by priests or other diocesan employees over the past half century. Potter ordered that Chesley's firm should immediately receive $1.068 million to cover money it had already spent on the case, plus 22 percent of whatever the victims receive. Chesley's firm will receive that money as it is paid to victims. For example, if one of the settlement masters awards a victim $100,000, the victim would receive $78,000 and Chesley's firm $22,000. If all the $84 million were paid out, which Potter said was unlikely, Chesley's firm would get about $18 million in fees. In his ruling, Potter said he didn't want the reduction to reflect adversely on Chesley's firm or the request for 30 percent. "The court has based the fee on a finding that class counsel is highly qualified, worked hard for the class and achieved a good result," he wrote. Although the firm didn't present any documentation of how many hours it worked on the case, Potter said he didn't question the firm's claim to have worked on it for thousands of hours. He based the reduction on his finding that the case wasn't as complicated as Chesley's firm said it was, and his ruling that the savings realized by using the class-action process shouldn't go just to the attorneys. Harvard Law School professor Arthur Miller had testified on Chesley's behalf. Chesley said he hoped to get a substantial amount of the payments made by the end of this year. The lawsuit began in 2003, when Chesley and his partner, Robert Steinberg, filed suit against the diocese in Boone Circuit Court.
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