When the Center for Biological Diversity sued the U.S. Forest Service in Colorado in 2012 for violating the Endangered Species Act, government lawyers didn’t put up a fight.
Rather than answering the complaint, U.S. Department of Justice lawyers promptly settled the case, involving the greenback cutthroat trout, Colorado’s state fish, and handed the center a victory. As part of the deal, the government agreed to pay the center’s attorney fees: $40,000 for work by two in-house lawyers that, at least on paper, consisted mainly of filing a notice of intent to sue, a complaint and motions for extensions of time.
