Attorneys who have beat the Interior Department in court are now fighting for their fees on a least a couple fronts.
In one case, lawyers representing a Michigan tribe have asked for what the Justice Department called a “staggering” $1.5 million in attorneys fees. A Justice attorney countered on Wednesday that the government might owe about $50,000, at most.
In another case, a court filing Monday revealed that the Justice Department had abruptly backed out of a fee settlement with environmentalists who had successfully challenged a Bureau of Land Management oil-and-gas leasing decision.
“We have not encountered a situation like this before, where we were in the process of finalizing a settlement agreement and the federal government came back and informed us that it was no longer interested in settling,” Earthjustice senior attorney Alexandra Schluntz said Thursday.
