As reported in a previous blog posting, the Board of Education has been retaining outside attorneys for years without putting these contracts out for a bid. Last we knew, the outside counsel for the Board of Education mentioned in this case was charging about $6,000 a day for hearings.
Read this U.S. District Court case filing and count the hearing days to determine how much Montgomery County tax payers paid to fight this one small child over a hour and a half of speech therapy a week.
Spoiler alert: 14 x $6,000= $84,000
M.T.V.
Unfortunately, MCPS continues to follow its well entrenched "scorched earth" policy whenever confronted by a family at odds with the public school over their child's education. This is especially true in virtually any Due Process Appeal filed against MCPS. I should know, I was the attorney representing the family in the this case. In the end, the County provided all the family had sought for the student but only after much delay and unnecessary expense. Happily, the ALJ who wrongly decided the case for the school system at the first level was eventually removed from her position as judge in school contests like this one.
ReplyDeleteBUT the $6,000 per day attorney who was paid many tens of thousands in fees for his aggressive representation (far in excess of the cost for services the family was seeking for their disabled child) he is still on the job...
Patrick Hoover
HooverLaw, LLC