A recent law.com story, “Master in Prudential Fraud Case Lowers His Fees as Plantiffs Seek His Ouster” reports that special master William Hunt, who was appointed to handle discovery in a mammoth fraud and bribery suit against Prudential Life Insurance Co. has agreed to reduce his fees, even as the plaintiffs lawyers are trying to dispense with him altogether.  Hunt said in a letter to the parties that he would cut his hourly rate from $450 to $350.  The concession came after plaintiffs lawyer Angela Roper sounded alarms over the $77,265 legal bill Hunt submitted for his first three weeks on the job.  The rate reduction will shave about $17,000 off the total.  According to the legal invoice, Hunt put in 171.7 hours between July 16 and August 7.  The plaintiffs and defendants are splitting Hunt’s tab.

Superior Court Judge Brian Martinotti defended the appointment of a special master and the hours Hunt billed, noting that he had instructed Hunt to “spend considerable time and effort to become familiar with the facts, positions of the parties, and unique legal theories espoused by all the litigants.”  Martinotti said the hours billed were also just in view of the “acrimony and contentious nature of counsels’ behavior towards each other…often resulted in voluminous and numerous e-mails and correspondence” with each other, the court and Hunt himself.