"Sixth District Lets Counties Pay on Contingency"

In today's Recorder, Mike McKee reports that "Sixth District Lets Counties Pay on Contingency" (subscription):

The ruling is great news for local governments, which claim they would have a hard time prosecuting nuisance abatement suits — such as oil spill or toxic landfill cases — without outside lawyers.

"It's important to counties and cities throughout the state," said Santa Clara County Counsel Ann Ravel, whose office was leading the lead-paint litigation at the center of the ruling, "because, due to financial issues and the size of a lot of counties' and cities' offices … [they] can't pursue cases of this sort without the aid of contingency counsel." Government agencies, she said, simply can't afford to pay hourly fees.