That was the response of more than one expert I talked to in the last week about the costs of obtaining our Certificate of Need and subsequent work. That's even after some of the complicating issues. Of the $600,000 that we have paid Duane Morris, approximately $400,000 was related to our Certificate of Need, alterations to the same, and then followup work on our final cost report and compliance.
So what's the going rate for doing this work from people who actually do this work? How about $25,000-$50,000. That's right. And some of these experts actually work for, can you believe it, a FLAT fee. For example, DeKalb County, a county which we are looking to as a model for our own, paid about $30,000 to their consultant for their Certificate of Need 9 years ago.
As one person put it to me, it appears that we paid for the education of Duane Morris. This becomes painfully obvious when you consider that they weren't even aware of the impact of the new rules on our project.
I have no idea why we have this firm representing us. And after hiring them, I have no idea why we kept them after their deficiencies became painfully obvious. Earlier this week I gave Julia Rietz a letter asking her for examples of other work that Duane Morris has done along the lines of what we were asking them to do. I also asked for some names of the State's Attorneys who so highly recommended their services. I'll let you know if and when she responds. The audio below is Ms. Rietz with another empassioned attorney defense.
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Maybe Ms. Rietz should dispense with the defensive attitude and make an effort to have these excessive billings reduced. Has she made any effort to do this? She appears to be denying this is a problem in hopes that it won't become a campaign issue. It would certainly be refreshing if she would quit focusing on politics and do what's right for the county.
Ms. Rietz is also an attorney, and as such, probably doesn't really see those fees as excessive. It's what is the norm, billing clients with whatever fee you have chosen to charge. So, in her "defense", she just doesn't have as much of a problem with it as we lowly lay people.
Was the situation in DeKalb County identical to ours, or did we have any unusual circumstances that wouldn't have been conducive to a flat fee? Also, will there be any effort to get our attorney fees paid by the contractors who screwed up?
Wayward,
Nothing was identical to our situation, we were far worse in the administration of everything.
The fees are indeed a part of the contract, BUT the means of solution is Binding Arbitration, and historically the Arbitration method does indeed get the facts right, but almost never awards legal fees and expert witness expenses unless one party is completely without blame.
In this case, the County certainly has its share of blame and ineptness and will almost certainly not be awarded any legal costs.
The certificate of need is exactly what Mark says, there are firms that do that, just like firms get grants from a government body. They are very good at what they do, they are very efficient and doing that for comparatively small fees. Champaign just chose to make ineptness fashionable and lucrative.
Who I am, is who I want to be...
Rex Bradfield
DeKalb County's Certificate of Need I believe was very much like ours. As to these costs being picked up in litigation there is no hope of that. We paid $200,000 to Duane Morris on mold litigation which we could possibly get back. But the $400,000 certificate of need costs are unrecoverable. They aren't the result of any damages. We just overpaid.
I'm sure there will be some apologists out there that will talk about how "different" this case is. But you should know that there was no opposition to this case and this case involved a bed for bed replacement of an existing structure. From my conversations with people who are actually experts I can tell you that our particular case was simple.