Attorneys ask court for $1.3 million in fees in OKC panhandling challenge

Attorneys who won a free-speech challenge to the city of Oklahoma City's 2015 panhandling ordinance are seeking $1.3 million in fees for legal work conducted throughout five years of "hard-fought" litigation.

In a 35-page motion filed this week in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, the five-member, ACLU-led team said the proposed compensation is reasonable, and at the low end of the scale for local lawyers of similar expertise.

An award also will further federal policy of deterring local and state governments from adopting laws that violate the constitutional rights of their citizens, they wrote.

The 2015 ordinance outlawed standing, sitting or staying on many traffic medians, with limited exceptions for such things as emergency response. The original intent was to push panhandlers off medians at busy intersections, where they sought handouts from drivers waiting at traffic lights.

Read more: https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/2021/05/01/oklahoma-city-panhandling-challenge-aclu-attorneys-ask-fees/4858276001/