Justia Legal Ethics Opinion Summaries

In this 42 U.S.C. Medicaid class action, the District appealed two separate awards of attorneys’ fees and expenses for work performed from 2010 to 2012. The court concluded that the district court acted within its discretion with respect to its determinations about the reasonableness of the attorneys' hours in the fee applications; the court rejected plaintiffs' threshold contention that the District waived its challenge to the LSI Laffey rates and determined that the district court did not abuse its discretion in selection of LSI Laffey rates in light of this court's intervening decision in Eley v. District of Columbia; and the court affirmed the award of fees requiring the District to pay for the time plaintiffs’ counsel spent responding to an appeal involving an effort to obtain information used by one of the District’s contractors because the information was necessary for plaintiffs' counsel to litigate some of the claims underlying the Settlement Order. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "Salazar v. District of Columbia" on Justia Law

The District and the Police Department appealed from the district court's grant of preliminary injunction restraining enforcement of a “good reason” standard in the D.C. Code provision governing the issuance of licenses for the carrying of concealed weapons, D.C. Law 20-279, 3(b). The court noted that the controlling fact in this case is the identity of the judge who decided it in the district court – The Honorable Senior United States District Judge Frederick J. Scullin, Jr., of the Northern District of New York. Although Judge Scullin served under a properly issued designation, that designation was limited to specific and enumerated cases. The court concluded that the present litigation is not one of those cases. The court concluded that, like the designated judge in Frad v. Kelly, Judge Scullin had a limited designation that did not extend beyond the specifications of that designation. Accordingly, the court vacated the order based on jurisdictional grounds. View "Wrenn v. District of Columbia" on Justia Law

Plaintiff, a law firm, provided legal services to three companies owned and managed by defendants. After defendants failed to pay legal bills, the law firm filed suit and prevailed. The court concluded that the Confession of Judgment entered in Michigan state court had no preclusive effect and therefore did not bar the current suit under principles of res judicata; the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying amendment; the Retention Letter did not incorporate the Promissory Note’s choice-of-law and attorney’s fee clauses; and D.C. law applies to the Retention Letter and does not preclude the law firm from recovering fees incurred while representing itself. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "Bode & Grenier, LLP v. Knight" on Justia Law