NewYorkCountryLawyer's Journal: RIAA Makes Capitol v. Foster fees Go from $55k to $114k

The RIAA's challenges to Judge Lee R. West's order (pdf) awarding the defendant attorneys fees in Capitol v. Foster and to the "reasonableness" of Ms. Foster's attorneys' fees have not only forced the RIAA to disclose its own attorneys fees, and caused the judge to issue a second decision labeling them as "disingenuous", their motives "questionable", and their factual statements "not true", but have now caused the amount of the fees to more than double, from $55,000 to $114,000, as evidenced by Ms. Foster's supplemental fee application (pdf's).

Can of Worms

[evought]

Ooops.

When I was in Mock Trial in High School, the coach taught us two things early on:

1) Beware of the "one-too-many-questions" trap: don't ask a question you don't know the answer to, especially "Why?" or "How?" They just might tell you.

2) Don't open a can of worms on Direct you can't stand to have poked at in Cross.

This is slightly different but I would think goes into the same general bucket:

3) Don't cry out in the name of equity if it will shatter your own case. It looks like SCO needs to learn this on

Re:

[NewYorkCountryLawyer]

You got it.

I love lawyers who always think they should do everything they can think of doing..... as adversaries.

Re:

[Compulawyer]

As do I ....

Re:

[NewYorkCountryLawyer]

It looks like the RIAA should have shut up, taken their lumps and walked away. In the scheme of things, the attorney's fees weren't that much, and the current result may be devastating for them.

Exactly right.

At several points, it was recommended that I go into law. Sometimes, I wonder whether I would have enjoyed it. The long hours, research, briefs, and grunt work is probably no worse than the long hours, research, tech writing, and grunt work involved in programming. One of the things I loved about the consulting work I did was involvement with the clients and learning about their problems; I imagine law affords those opportunities as well. Do you find this to be true? Does it make the rest worth it?

Don't even think about it.

That's awesome.

[Shadow Wrought]

I am very glad that you do the work you do. While I really like the lawyers I'm with now, its very nice to know that there are others out there. Keep up the good work!

Nicely done

[etherlad]

Man, I love it when their own arguments come back to bite them in the ass. Kudos to the defendant's legal team, and to the judge involved.

Heh.

[curtisk]

Thanks for the morning smile, thats great!