South Carolina paying $215K in legal fees in same-sex marriage battles
South Carolina’s attorney general recently entered a settlement for $80,000 in legal fees for a couple who challenged the state’s ban on same-sex marriage, which follows a federal judge’s order last month that another couple be awarded more than $135,000 in legal fees, the Associated Press reports.
The two suits were filed in federal courts in Charleston and Columbia after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in June declared same-sex marriage to be the law of the land. Last month, U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel, in Charleston, ordered the state to reimburse Colleen Condon and Nichols Bleckley a bit more than $135,000 in legal fees.
And now court documents in Columbia show that earlier this month, state Attorney General Alan Wilson reached an agreement with Highway Patrol Trooper Katherine Bradacs and U.S. Air Force retiree Tracie Goodwin, in which the state will pay $80,000 for their legal fees.
The Charleston couple sued the state last year seeking a marriage license and sought $153,000 in fees and costs for 446 hours of work by seven lawyers. The Columbia couple had married earlier in the District of Columbia and sued South Carolina to have their marriage recognized, then sought $92,000 in fees and costs for 265 hours of work by three lawyers.
Judge Gergel in Charleston noted a significant difference in the lawyers’ work in the two cases: Condon and Bleckley’s lawyers spent a lot of time on work before the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court battling the state’s refusal to issue them a marriage license.
