The CNMI government has agreed to pay Betty Johnson\u2019s original counsel, Bruce Jorgensen, $800,000 in attorney\u2019s fees and costs, and Johnson\u2019s local counsel, Stephen C. Woodruff, $185,000. The payment is subject to federal court\u2019s approval.<\/p>\n
Assistant attorney general Reena J. Patel, on behalf of the CNMI government, and attorneys Jorgensen and Woodruff filed in federal court on Friday separate motions for approval of attorneys\u2019 fees.<\/p>\n
Patel and the lawyers stated that the agreement is a fair and proper settlement of Jorgensen\u2019s and Woodruff\u2019s fees.<\/p>\n
They said the compromise was a result of extensive, good faith arm\u2019s length negotiations initiated by the court, with the help of Hawaii chief bankruptcy judge Robert Faris, after the court approved the settlement of Johnson\u2019s class action.<\/p>\n
They said negotiations took place over a three-and-a-half-month period, mostly by telephone.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe parties are in the process of finalizing the written agreement documenting this settlement, which shall be submitted to the court upon execution,\u201d Patel and the two lawyers said.<\/p>\n
Jorgensen\u2019s initial request was at least $18.6 million, while Woodruff\u2019s was $2.9 million. <\/p>\n
U.S. District Court for the NMI designated judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood has given the CNMI government, Jorgensen, and Woodruff until Friday to file agreed motions to approve the settlements they reached on the two lawyers\u2019 petitions for attorneys\u2019 fees and costs.<\/p>\n
Tydingco-Gatewood disclosed that the CNMI government advised her last Wednesday that it has reached settlements with both Jorgensen and Woodruff, but did not reach a settlement with Johnson\u2019s Hawaii-based counsel Bronster Hoshibata law firm or Johnson\u2019s other counsel, Timothy Lord.<\/p>\n
The judge gave anyone who objects to the settlements between the CNMI and Jorgensen and Woodruff until Feb. 19, 2014, to submit their oppositions\/objections. Replies to such oppositions\/objections shall be filed no later than Feb. 24, 2014. <\/p>\n
Tydingco-Gatewood said she will hold a hearing on the stipulated motions to approve on March 4, 2014, immediately following the presentation of Settlement Fund trustee Joyce C.H. Tang on the status of the settlement fund.<\/p>\n
With respect to Bronster Hoshibata\u2019s petition, the judge will hold an evidentiary hearing today at 8:30am. The hearing will be vacated if a settlement agreement is reached prior to the hearing and a stipulated motion to approve the settlement will be heard on March 4. <\/p>\n
On Lord\u2019s petition, Tydingco-Gatewood set the evidentiary hearing for March 4 at 9am.<\/p>\n
Bronster Hoshibata is demanding $17.5 million, while Lord\u2019s initial demand was either $3.6 million or $5.9 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The CNMI government has agreed to pay Betty Johnson\u2019s original counsel, Bruce Jorgensen, $800,000 in attorney\u2019s fees and costs, and Johnson\u2019s local counsel, Stephen C. Woodruff, $185,000. The payment is subject to federal court\u2019s approval.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-175528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175528\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}