All about the Benjamins.
Via Cleveland Com:
Plaintiffs in the U.S. Supreme Court case that legalized gay marriage nationwide filed paperwork on Friday to seek more than $1.1 million from the state of Ohio as compensation for costs they accrued overturning the state’s same-sex marriage ban.
Attorneys for the gay and lesbian Ohioans who contested the ban in the Obergefell v. Hodges case submitted a legal brief asking U.S. District Court Judge Timothy S. Black to order that they be reimbursed $1,096,142.50 in attorney’s fees and $51,360.12 in expenses.
The legal team from private practices and organizations including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund also asked Black to boost their reimbursement an extra 50 percent beyond their fees and expenses.
Their brief argued the lawyers “advanced the marriage equality law in this country for all married same sex couples and their children,” and the 50 percent enhancement is appropriate because the case “resulted in a landmark Supreme Court decision.”
“Obergefell changed the lives of thousands of parents and their children throughout Ohio and the entire country,” the brief said. “These extraordinary results were achieved through the superior work” of the case’s lead attorneys.
Plaintiffs in cases that sought to overturn state gay marriage bans around the country are filing similar cost recovery claims. In Texas, lawyers have requested $740,000 for the work they performed. Those in Michigan and Kentucky are seeking around $2 million.
Laws designed to encourage filing of civil rights cases allow plaintiffs who win their legal battles against the government to seek “reasonable” attorneys’ fees and costs from the entities they sued. The plaintiffs in this case say the fee should be enhanced “because of the results, the unpopularity of the case, and fee awards in other cases.”