Attorney Bob Sombathy tried to find answers Monday to questions about getting paid for his hundreds of hours of work on behalf of former boot camp drill instructor Patrick Garrett.
Sombathy filed a motion on July 19 asking the state Judicial Administration Commission to pay the fees he already has accrued. The commission objected, and a hearing was scheduled for Monday to resolve the issue.
Sombathy is seeking $31,000 for 300 hours of work he has put into the case so far.
“I don’t know if you’re familiar with this case,” Overstreet told Presnell. “But there’s an extraordinary amount of discovery involved in the matter with eight separate defendants. There’s something like 25,000 pages of documents. The trial is coming up, and people need to get paid.”
Smith said Monday that expert fees in the case, for both the state and defense, could top $100,000.
I have mixed feelings about this. I accept flat-fee cases as appointed counsel with my eyes wide open. The great majority of my flat-fee cases would have earned far more money if billed at an hourly rate, even under the old low rate locally of $80 an hour. Still, some do take less time and work in my favor, so I've accepted the assumption of risk. On the other hand, some cases are not just complex, but extraordinary.
There is something disconcerting, I admit, to hearing about a case where experts will be paid $100,000, and the attorney who orchestrates the entire defense, and is himself an expert, may only get the $1,000 flat fee.
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