Montana will have to pay nearly $3 million to cover attorney fees for the group of young people who successfully challenged state energy laws for violating their constitutional right to a stable climate.
Lewis and Clark District Court Judge Kathy Seeley, who ruled in favor of the youth in August 2023, determined Tuesday that the lawyers in Held v. Montana are entitled to be compensated, given the gravity of the case.
The state, she wrote, did not “overcome the rebuttable presumption that ‘when a Montana citizen has to resort to litigation in order to vindicate a constitutional right, the citizen is entitled to a rebuttable presumption that he should not bear the expense of that litigation.’”
Seeley awarded $2.8 million in attorney fees and nearly $100,000 in additional costs. The attorneys for the youth — Oregon-based Our Children’s Trust, the Western Environmental Law Center and attorneys Roger Sullivan and Phil Gregory — said in a joint statement they were grateful the court recognized the time and effort it took to argue the case.
