Court Orders Beaumont Consulting Company to Pay $50,000 In Attorneys’ Fees To Non-Profit Citizen Group

June 29, 2011

As reported by the Press-Enterprise, a court awarded a citizens group nearly $50,000 in attorneys’ fees for successfully defending a lawsuit that violated their First Amendment rights.

Riverside Superior Court Commissioner Paulette Durand- Barkley,  who had thrown out a case filed against Beaumont Citizens For Responsible Government by Urban Logic Consultants, Inc and former Beaumont officials Deepak Moorjani, Ernest Egger and David Dillon  ruled last week that ULC , Moorjani, Egger and Dillon must pay $49,335.50 to BCRG and Reid & Hellyer, the Riverside law firm that had succeeded in proving ULC’s lawsuit violated California’s “anti-SLAPP” laws (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) by infringing on the Free Speech rights of BCRG and the three Beaumont women whose website publicly criticized how millions of dollars had been paid to ULC, a company owned and operated by the three former Beaumont officials.

Judy Bingham, co-owner of the Beaumont Garden Center and one of the defendants targeted by ULC’s lawsuit, said: “I feel safe that I and others can now express our opinion regarding the public’s business without fear of retribution.”  Andrew I. Roth, lead counsel for Reid & Hellyer on the case, said the attorneys’ fee award was mandatory under California Law, and that “this ruling shows how important it is to have sensible State law and strong Judges to protect people who speak out on how their government money is being spent.  The attorneys’ fees provision of California’s anti-SLAPP statute encourages experienced counsel to step in when well-financed corporations try to use strategic lawsuits to avoid public scrutiny of their operations.”

ULC has already filed for appeal of the dismissal; Roth said he will continue to defend BCRG, and will seek an additional fee award for the work needed to handle the case in the Court of Appeal.