LAW WEEK COLORADO
DENVER — Though Colorado Ethics Watch ended up winning the litigation it filed against Clear The Bench Colorado, it still must pay more than $13,000 in costs and attorney fees.
Ethics Watch filed a campaign finance complaint in May against Clear The Bench, which campaigned against the retention of Colorado Supreme Court justices. But because none of the targeted justices had officially declared their intent to seek retention at the time the complaint was filed, Administrative Law Judge Robert Spencer dismissed the complaint on summary judgment and took the step of granting attorney fees.
Ethics Watch filed and won an amended complaint. As a result, Clear The Bench was ordered to register as a political committee, which has contribution limits. Spencer ruled that attorney fees directly related to defending against the dismissed complaint should still be awarded, while those related to defending against the amended complaint should not be awarded.
Spencer last week ordered Ethics Watch to pay $13,047.20 in costs and attorney fees to Clear The Bench, which had requested $23,712.50.
“It’s definitely a victory,” said Clear The Bench founder Matt Arnold. “It’s an incomplete victory, I would argue, because they should have been on the hook for the full amount, but the major point is that they were in fact sanctioned for their groundless and vexatious attacks on our organization.”
Ethics Watch didn’t have a statement available Wednesday morning, but director Luis Toro said in an e-mail: “We’re studying the order and evaluating our options as the prevailing party in the litigation.”
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[...] and source of information regarding the Colorado legal-judicial scene) on 15 December (”Ethics Watch Must Pay Attorney Fees In Clear The Bench Case“). The Law Week article summarizes the judgement, provides some background on the [...]