A federal judge has awarded lawyers who challenged the state’s foster care system more than $11 million in fees and expenses — about 70 percent of the lawyers’ request but almost four times what the state of Georgia wanted to pay.
In writing the final chapter of the long-running case, Senior U.S. District Judge Marvin H. Shoob praised the lawyers’ work as resulting in “sweeping relief to the plaintiff class.” The 1976 Civil Rights Attorneys’ Fees Act allows private plaintiffs to recover reasonable attorney fees if the plaintiffs prevail in civil rights cases.
