Posted on 10/23/2009 10:08:41 PM PDT by South40
High school student Chad Farnan, 17, speaks at a
campaign fundraiser for Shawn Black, a GOP
candidate for the 70th Assembly District, earlier
this month. The legal group that represents
Farnan, Advocates for Faith & Freedom, has
been ordered to pay $19,688 in legal fees.
SANTA ANA – In a legal twist that challenges the notion of what a prevailing party is, a federal court clerk on Friday awarded $19,688 in court-related fees to the attorneys who represented high school teacher James Corbett, sued two years ago for making anti-Christian comments in class.
Milli Borgarding, the deputy in charge of the Santa Ana division of the U.S. District Court clerk's office, determined that although Corbett violated the First Amendment rights of a former student, the money should be awarded to his team because the same attorneys represented Capistrano Unified School District, which was found not liable for Corbett's actions.
The fees are to be paid by Murrietta-based Advocates for Faith & Freedom, the Christian legal group that represented student Chad Farnan on a pro-bono basis.
"Usually, you have one party who's clearly entitled to costs as the prevailing party, but this case is complicated," said Farnan's attorney, Robert Tyler.
(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...
The teacher lost...he should pay the school district, not the kid.
This gives Farnan a slam-dunk cause of action against the teacher for an additional $20,000—including whatever additional costs are incurred to claim it.
I’m wondering how a court clerk and not a judge gets to make this determination.
Some animals are more equal than others, don't ya know.
What a load.
Not too unusual for Kalifornistan. But it is unusual for Orange County, a conservative bastion in this otherwise putridly liberal state.
If the school district used their lawyers to defend the teacher, aren’t they admitting their liability? Otherwise they should have told him to get his own lawyer.
That makes two of us.
The teacher lost to the jury and the judge was POed because the jury didn’t go his way?
This is just "make-work" garbage where the kid has to now SUE the attorney (via another attorney) to get the money that he paid to them back. After Attorney fees, he's gonna be out more money.
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