RIAA Directed To Pay $68K In Attorneys Fees

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "In Capitol v. Foster, in Oklahoma, the RIAA has been directed to pay the defendant $68,685.23 in attorneys fees. This is the first instance of which I am aware of the RIAA being ordered to pay the defendant attorneys fees. The judge in this case has criticized the RIAA's lawyers' motives as 'questionable,' and their legal theories as 'marginal' (PDF). Although the judge had previously ordered the RIAA to turn over its own attorneys billing records, today's decision (PDF) made no mention of the amount that the RIAA had spent on its own lawyers."

Comments

And the winner in all of this is . . .

[Anonymous Coward]

the lawyers, of course.

Re:And the winner in all of this is . . .

[tehwebguy]

Yes, but at least that is motivation for lawyers to take on more cases like this. Hopefully this will benefit people who could not afford a decent lawyer normally.

Chutzpah

[Bob9113]

From the filing:
[Plaintiffs] further argue that the defendant is not entitled to fees for work that could have been avoided had she assisted the plaintiffs or acceded to the settlement.

She can't charge for attorneys' fees because she decided not to settle? Does that imply that if she had settled, she would have gotten attorneys' fees? What planet are these people from?

Finally, [plaintiffs] contend the case was of too simple and mundane a nature to warrant a fee in excess of $100,000.

Yet they see nothing wrong with a fine of $100,000 per violation for copyright infringement.

How did the judge feel about this?

The plaintiffs argue that the defendant is not entitled to fees incurred after some point when she allegedly "could have avoided [fees] altogether but chose not to do so." Throughout the course of this litigation the plaintiffs have alleged that had the defendant appropriately assisted their copyright infringement investigation and litigation, she could have avoided being sued. The Court has rejected this argument on numerous occasions and declines to entertain it yet again. The defendant was entitled to litigate the claims the plaintiffs chose to bring against her and, as the prevailing party on those claims, she is entitled to recover the reasonable attorneys' fees she incurred in doing so.

Or, in layman's terms: Did your Mom drop you on your head when you were little?