Two state offices were billed a total of $13,926 in legal fees to defend themselves in a lawsuit filed by Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Courtney Rae Hudson to stop the release of certain documents to Arkansas Business.
The Waddell Cole & Jones firm of Jonesboro billed the Office of Professional Conduct $5,958, according to documents released to Whispers under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.
Meanwhile, the Shults Law Firm of Little Rock billed the Arkansas Administrative Office of the Courts $7,968.
If you recall, Hudson sought an injunction against the two offices in September in Pulaski County Circuit Court.
Both offices asked to be represented by the Office of the Attorney General, but it declined because it “would present a conflict,” according to General Counsel Zach Mayo’s letters to the offices.
Before the lawsuit was filed, Charlene Fleetwood, the acting director of the OPC, planned to tell Arkansas Business that its request for the documents was exempt.
“Upon learning of Fleetwood’s position that the information requested was exempt from disclosure, five Supreme Court Justices voted to overrule Fleetwood’s position and have any materials found be produced including correspondence of Justice Hudson,” Hudson’s lawsuit said.
But Hudson argued that the OPC and the Administrative Office of the Courts are not the custodian of the records and the requested records are exempt from the FOI. The Arkansas attorney general’s office wrote a memo agreeing with Hudson’s position.
Hudson also had asked the AG’s office to represent her in the FOI issue, according to the email she released to Whispers under the FOI.
“Because we have now advised the entire Court, we believe it would be a conflict to represent one justice or group of justices in litigation against another justice or group of justices on this issue,” Mayo said in a Sept. 6 email to Hudson, the day the injunction was filed.
Hudson hired the Denton Zachary & Norwood PLLC law firm of Little Rock to represent her.
“No state funds were used to pay my private counsel,” she wrote in an Oct. 31 email to Whispers.
Hudson’s lawsuit ended at the end of September when the Arkansas Supreme Court issued a per curiam opinion dismissing the case and mandated the release of some of the documents.
The billing records to the OPC show that Waddell Cole & Jones’ partner Paul Waddell worked 16.35 hours on the case at $285 per hour, and partner Sam Waddell devoted 3.8 hours at $265 per hour. In addition to a driving to Little Rock, which was billed at $191.60, there was a $100 fee for a paralegal.
The billing records for the Administrative Office of Courts show the Shults Law Firm spent 24.6 hours on the case. The bulk of the case was handled by attorney Peter Shults, who bills at $320 an hour.
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