County to pay fees to law firm

The county’s insurance company paid legal fees for one phase of the case.

By ED RUNYAN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — Mahoning County commissioners approved paying legal fees of $99,500 Thursday to the law firm that sued the county in 2003 for having an overcrowded and unsafe jail.

Prosecutor Paul Gains explained the fees were for work the firm Armbruster and Kelly of Akron did while working out a consent decree that detailed what would be needed to get the jail fully reopened and in compliance with the U.S. Constitution.

That effort was completed May 17, when three federal judges signed a court entry that established standards for jail staffing, improvement of jail conditions, the reopening of jail facilities by Aug. 1, an allotment of jail beds for Youngstown city prisoners and an emergency prisoner-release policy to prevent future overcrowding.

In 2005, the lawyers won what Gains calls the liability phase of the case, in which U.S. District Judge David D. Dowd Jr. sided with the inmates and took control of the lockup.

Generally the losing party in a case pays the winning party’s legal fees.

The county’s insurance company, the County Risk Sharing Authority, also known as CORSA, paid the legal fees associated with the liability phase, Gains said.

But CORSA argued it shouldn’t responsible for the fees associated with the consent agreement, Gains said, and he agreed to assign his staff to represent the county in that matter and to pay Armbruster and Kelly’s fees.

Past arrangements

Gains noted the county has had similar arrangements with CORSA in the past, which he believes have kept the county’s legal costs as low as possible by having the county’s lawyers handle matters that could go to the insurance company’s lawyers. In that way, the county avoids having to pay the $25,000 deductible on every case, Gains said.

Gains said Armbruster and Kelly’s fees turned out to be higher than anticipated, however. Early on, the firm’s fees were estimated to be around $7,500 to $10,000, but that ballooned to more than $100,000 after the city of Youngstown became a party to the negotiations, Gains said.

The city intervened in the case last summer because it wanted county jail facilities fully opened and opposed a prisoner-release order on the grounds that such an order would endanger public safety.

Commissioners approved paying the legal bill 3-0 at their regular meeting Thursday.

Afterward, Commissioner Anthony Traficanti said he was confident Gains had negotiated the best price possible under the circumstances.

“Unfortunately litigation costs money,” he said. “We’re doing what we can to keep the costs down.”

Gains said the original bill from Armbruster and Kelly was around $110,000, and he negotiated it down to $99,500.

runyan@vindy.com