State says it shouldn't pick up tab for partisan redistricting work

Thursday was a bad day for lawyers who want to get paid.

Senate Minority Leader Tom Bakk said he wasn’t ready to okay payment of the lawyers’ fees for dealing with the Senate’s sex-scandal and, separately, the secretary of state filed a motion saying that the partisan attorneys who worked on redistricting should not by paid by the state.

Three groups of attorneys who worked on the case – the DFL Party’s lawyers, Republican lawyers and Democratic lawyers not working with the party – say the state should pay their bills because they court ruled the state’s old maps were unconstitutional.

All told, the attorneys say the state should pick up the tab for $720,000 for their work.

The state argued in papers Thursday that not only should they not get the cash because they were not the prevailing party, even if they do get paid something, their lawyers are charging too much.

"They seek to be reimbursed at out-of-state rates for three out-of-state attorneys and four of their legal assistants," the state argued regarding the DFL party's attorneys bill.

Of the Republicans, the state notes that they were represented by, "two different law firms and six attorneys," that the court only received a bill from one firm and the bill from the other was, "almost completely redacted."