$485-an-hour? That's Outrageous, Egregious, Preposterous

By Matt Wood in News on Oct 5, 2006 1:02PM

The Cook County government may be corrupt, but apparently they have some limits. For example, they won't let you expense more than $185-an-hour for private attorney fees. Cut it a little close, and maybe they'll give you a break, but try to charge $485-an-hour, well, that's where they put their foot down.

The Sun-Times reports that the County Board rejected a request by an employee to pay their attorney's exorbitant $485-an-hour rates. The firm of Cochran, Chiles, Mason, and Darrow couldn't be reached for comment. The Board did however approve a $10,480 bill submitted by former Commissioner Al Carr for his private attorney, for representing him before a grand jury. Carr's request exceeded the $185-an-hour limit, but the Board paid because the work was already finished.

The county allows for any employees subpoenaed for documents or testimony related to their jobs to expense their legal fees. We guess that's fair, because sometimes an employee might just be caught in the midst of a larger investigation. But this isn't any ordinary county government either. They must have to set up a separate budget just to pay the attorneys.