Louisiana seeks to limit attorney fees in death row heat lawsuit

BATON ROUGE, La. — Louisiana corrections officials want a federal judge to reduce the nearly $890,000 that a team of lawyers is requesting in a lawsuit over hot conditions on death row at the Louisiana State Penitentiary.

The Advocate reports the attorneys for Elzie Ball, Nathaniel Code and James Magee are asking Chief U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson to order the state to pay the attorneys $795,550 in fees and another $92,000-plus in costs.

Lawyers for the state claim in court documents that the billing records for the inmates attorneys are "compromised by vague entries, imprecise record-keeping, duplicative work and unreasonable time expended without adequate justification."

The judge has given the inmates' attorneys until Jan. 13 to respond to the state's opposition.

Source: nola.com, December 30, 2015

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