Attorneys who helped a Chicago park supervisor secure a $500,000 payout from the Chicago Park District for alleged racial discrimination, should themselves receive more than $1 million from the action, a federal judge has ruled.
On July 20, U.S. District Judge Jorge L. Alonso ordered the Chicago Park District to pay a little more than $1 million in attorney fees to the lawyers who represented plaintiff Lydia Vega in her legal action against the park district.
According to court records, Vega was represented by attorney Catherine Simmons-Gill and her associates.
“Although the evidence of intentional discrimination was hardly overwhelming at first glance, plaintiff will receive approximately $500,000 in damages (and) back pay … and she has been ordered to be reinstated by her employer, with all the benefits (financial and otherwise) that that entails,” Judge Alonso wrote in the order. “Such extraordinary success deserves an extraordinary reward.”
Vega sued the park district in 2013, after she was fired from her job as a park supervisor. She accused the park district of discriminating against her. She is Hispanic.
Vega had worked for the park district for 20 years and had been promoted numerous times.
In 2012, she was accused of falsifying her timesheets and claiming to have been at work when she allegedly was not. The accusation triggered an investigation, during which she was tailed, questioned and video recorded over the course of several weeks. Judges noted she was surveilled 252 times over the course of 56 days.
The investigation ultimately led to her termination, prompting Vega’s lawsuit.
Vega claimed the park district’s actions were out of line with the evidence and violated the provisions of the district’s union rules. Further, she claimed she was never allowed to defend herself.
She further asserted the investigation and termination were part of a pattern of discriminatory behavior against Hispanic park district employees, when white and Black supervisors accused of similar behavior were not surveilled as intensely as was she, nor were they fired.
At trial, a jury awarded Vega $750,000. However, that award was reduced to the maximum allowed under law. When included with her back pay and a so-called “tax incentive” award – essentially, compensating her for the big tax bill she would owe when she reported her court award on her income tax returns – the total payout to Vega exceeded $500,000.
Further, the district was ordered to restore Vega to her old position.
Vega’s attorneys then submitted a bill for more than $1 million, and asked the court to order the park district to pay it.
The Chicago Park District disputed the bills, saying they were excessive. The park district asserted Vega’s attorneys billed partially for hours of clerical work and at higher rates than she had charged in the past.
They asked the court to set Vega’s attorneys’ fees at $41,784.
In response, Vega’s lawyers argued the park district’s attempts to defend itself, which included an appeal of the results of the trial, are the reason Vega’s legal bills are now so steep.
Judge Alonso sided with Vega’s lawyers.
While he conceded some of the billings may have appeared “bloated,” the judge agreed only to reduce the fee request by about 5%.
“… Defendant (the park district) has taken something of a scorched-earth approach to this case, raising objections even to seemingly innocuous requests, refusing to stipulate or make meaningful efforts to resolve issues by agreement, and generally challenging everything without being willing to compromise, and those litigation tactics played a role in inflating the time plaintiff’s counsel spent on this case,” Alonso wrote.
The Chicago Park District has been represented by attorneys Annette M. McGarry and Marianne C. Holzhall, of McGarry & McGarry LLC, of Chicago.