News of the Absurd?: $326 Bill Turns Into $160,000 in Legal Fees for Florida Pension

(June 8, 2011) — As part of a public records lawsuit, a $326 bill has turned into $160,000 in legal fees for Jacksonville’s Police and Fire Pension Fund, The Florida Times-Union is reporting.

In late 2009, Curtis Lee, a retired New York lawyer and the director in the nonprofit Concerned Taxpayers of Duval County, requested to see the scheme’s financial records, yet when he arrived at the fund’s office, he was told that he would need to pay $326. Without looking at the records or paying the bill, he left and sued the pension, saying the scheme had not adhered to state law. In response, the Florida pension is seeking assistance from a law firm that charges $285 per hour.

Lee sued the Florida fund, criticizing the scheme’s management. He said he had spent another $30,000 on an attorney after first representing himself for several months, The Florida Times-Union reported.

With closing arguments offered in April, Circuit Judge James H. Daniel will rule on the case. Lee and the Police and Fire Pension Fund — which never planned on such high legal costs, yet was forced to defend itself from Lee’s suit — blame each other for the expenses of going to court, the newspaper said, and are hoping that the judge will order the other side to pay the bill.

“We have a lawyer because he sued us. That’s about all I can tell you,” John Keane, the fund’s administrator, told the Jacksonville-based newspaper, referring to Lee’s suit. Keane called the costs “incomprehensible.”