Fairview Heights receives FOIA over attorneys' fees
From Sunshine Review
July 16, 2009 The Madison County Record filed a Freedom of Information Act request, asking for documents related to attorneys' fees from law suits against 13 online travel companies.[1]
[edit] City of Fairview Heights
The FOIA request came after Fairview Heights Mayor Gail Mitchell said the suits did not cost the city anything.
Although Illinois state law requires the city supply grounds for refusal, when the city denied a June 9 FOIA request on June 12, they did not cite the reasons for the exemption. City officials have said that they have tried contacting City Attorney Al Paulson, with no calls back, to determine the grounds for exemption.
The request was in order to determine how much the city took away from the litigation that lasted four years and how much its attorneys were paid.
Settlement documents that were released in May show that the defendants paid the city received about $315,000. Both parties were supposed to pay for their own costs for the suits.[1]
[edit] Missing funds
So far, the Expedia group of defendants have only paid about $57,000 of the $105,000 that they owe Fairview Heights. At this point, it is unclear if and how much was paid to the attorneys who worked for the city on the suits, such as Paulson, St. Louis-based attorney Richard Burke.
The city Treasurer's office says that no other checks have been received from the other defendants. These companies include Priceline.com, Orbitz, Hotels.com and others.
Paulson advised City Clerk Joseph Kassley that the requested bills were privileged and could contain references to personnel matters etc, according to his letter denying the request.
Illinois's FOI Act does allow government bodies to refuse FOIA requests including some legal documents, the Madison/St. Clair Record reported.
The act says:
- "...this exemption … provided no basis to withhold records of the payments made to a law firm representing a public body … where the records named the payee law firm, designated the amount and date of each payment, contained no legal advice, and revealed the substance of no attorney-client confidence either directly or indirectly."
Fairview Heights aims to recover back hotel-motel room taxes it claimed to be owed by the travel companies. Fairview Heights pursued the suits alone. The last defendants, the Orbitz defendant group, settled in March 2009.[1]
[edit] External links
- City of Fairview Heights website
- Expedia website
- Priceline website
- Orbitz website
- Hotels.com website
[edit] References
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