Lawyers Wrangle Over Fees In Jones' Case
WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, May 27) -- The latest fight in the Paula Jones case is over $800,000 in unpaid legal fees.
Jones' former attorneys, Joseph Cammarata and Gil Davis, asked an appellate court Tuesday for permission to argue against one part of Jones' attempt to reinstate her sexual harassment and employment discrimination lawsuit against President Bill Clinton, which a lower court dismissed in April.
Jones' current attorneys, who have challenged the dismissal, also have asked the appeals panel to overturn the lower court's decision that Cammarata and Davis were entitled to "reasonable attorney's fees" for their three years' work on the lawsuit.
"We have to defend ourselves against their unprincipled attacks on our right to attorneys' fees," Cammarata said. "Our being knocked down only serves to enrich them. I think it's a matter of principle and this goes beyond the pale."
In court papers, Cammarata wrote that Donovan Campbell, Mrs. Jones' current lead counsel, told him in a phone conversation that the language on fees "was inopportune and it was troubling to the settlement negotiations." But one of Clinton's lawyers said there are no settlement negotiations underway.
Campbell was not available to comment on Tuesday.
Cammarata and Davis have an $800,000 lien on any settlement or judgment Jones might win over her allegation that then-Arkansas Gov. Clinton sexually harassed her in 1991 in a Little Rock hotel room. Clinton has denied her accusations, and a judge ruled they did not merit a trial.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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