Today, the National Association of Legal Fee Analysis (NALFA) filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court of Louisiana.  NALFA filed the Motion for Leave (pdf) and Amicus Curiae Brief (pdf) in support of plaintiffs’ request for $5.2 million in attorney fees in an historic ADA case.  The landmark ADA case was reported in National Law Journal and USA Today about Seth Hopkins, a Houston lawyer who spent more than a decade in a bitter battle against Louisiana’s attorney general over the lack of handicapped accessible restrooms at a public university.

In the underlying case, Covington v. McNeese State University (pdf), McNeese State University student Collette Covington, who suffered from epilepsy and uses a wheelchair, urinated on herself after she was unable to use the restrooms at the student union.  Hopkins helped Covington obtain summary judgment in her 2001 federal civil rights case against McNeese State University. 

Hopkin’s litigation spurred the a U.S. Department of Justice federal investigation and compliance order (pdf) and resulted in the State of Louisiana appropriating $13.8 million for ADA upgrades at McNeese and made systemic policy changes at eight more universities.  In addition, the client received a landmark injunction, six year scholarship, and $400,000 cash in one of the largest single-client Title II ADA successes in U.S. history.

“The work and results obtained in this case are historic,” said Terry Jesse, Executive Director of NALFA.  “At NALFA, we have a professional obligation to help fee-seeking lawyers in their fee applications and assist courts in calculating and rendering fee awards.  We look forward to working on other amicus brief projects to help fee-seeking lawyers and shape the growing body of attorney fee jurisprudence in fee awarded litigation,” Jesse concluded.

NALFA first reported on this case in “Texas Lawyer Finally Wins Attorney Fees in Disability Case”