Home for Colored Children lawyers to get $5.7M in legal fees
Judge continued to ask questions about expenses being claimed by lawyers
The lawyers who worked on the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children settlement have been awarded $5.7 million in legal fees.
Judge Arthur Leblanc handed down his written decision on the legal fees paid to lawyers who worked on the case today.
Lawyer Ray Wagner and his team billed for $6.6 million for work that goes back 16 years. The figure represented 19 per cent of the $29 million class action settlement.
Wagner said the reduced rate will discourage lawyers from devoting their time and resources to class action lawsuits.
"If these agreements are ignored and the lawyers are expected to input a huge amount of capital into the advancement of the cases, at the end of the day they won't be reimbursed, you are going to find a chilling effect in the province on class proceedings," he said.
About 150 former residents of the orphanage allege they were sexually, physically and psychologically abused by staff over a 50-year period, to 1990.
A $29-million class-action settlement with the Nova Scotia government was finalized in July.
Last year, the Nova Scotia Supreme Court approved a separate $5-million settlement between the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children and the home's former residents. That settlement was separate from this latest class-action suit.