Judge asked to evaluate attorneys’ fees
A federal appeals court will be asked to evaluate if a judge erred in reducing attorneys’ fees in a case brought against Fayette County Children and Youth Services by nearly $200,000.
In August, U.S. Senior Judge Donetta W. Ambrose reduced a request for fees sought by attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union from $448,384 to $242,752. The ACLU attorneys sought to have the county reimburse the fees incurred in a case brought by a Smithfield father who had his children taken from his custody.
Earlier this year, the estate of Steven Conway won a $105,000 verdict against CYS. Conway, who died in a car accident last year, had his children taken away between 2006 and 2008 and was completely barred from seeing them for 11 months although he was never accused of abusing them.
On Tuesday, ACLU attorney Sara J. Rose filed paperwork in the 3rd Circuit Court that asked judges there to determine if Ambrose used fair market rates when she awarded fees, and if she properly reduced the number of hours for which Rose and ACLU attorney Vic Walczak were compensated.
CYS workers took Conway’s three children from him after an allegation that he was having sex with an unrelated teenager before she turned 16, which is the age of consent.
Before Walczak and Rose filed the suit in 2008, Conway had been completely precluded from seeing or having any contact at all with his children for 11 months.
Prior to that, he was permitted to have contact with the children and supervised visitation.