Three federal judges agree that attorneys representing thousands of black Alabama Department of Transportation employees intentionally dragged out a discrimination case to generate "fees for any lawyer activity, meritorious, lacking of merit or frivolous." The lawsuit against DOT has continued for nearly two decades. In an opinion handed down this week, U.S. Circuit Judges Rosemary Barkett and James C. Hill, along with U.S. District Judge Owen Forrester, agreed with a Montgomery federal judge's opinion that plaintiffs' attorneys in what is known as the Johnny Reynolds case "violated the spirit, if not the letter," of ethical rules regarding contact with witnesses. The Reynolds suit was brought in 1985 by thousands of black DOT workers who claimed the department kept blacks from advancing. Although the case is ongoing, in 1994, the state agreed to pay plaintiffs about $50 million and provide training for black DOT employees. [more
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