Federal Judge Critical of Firm's Fee Petition in Custody Case

Article here. Excerpt:

'A federal judge has sharply rebuked a team of lawyers from Fox Rothschild for filing an "excessive" fee petition after winning an international custody case, saying their bill of more than $163,000 in fees and expenses was simply too large for a "garden variety" custody battle.

"I simply cannot accept or justify an attorneys’ fee award of this size in a case of this nature," U.S. District Judge Lawrence F. Stengel wrote in his 11-page opinion in Clarke v. Clarke.

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Springer led a team that filed suit under the Hague Convention on behalf of Michael Clarke of Australia, alleging that his wife, Kristen Clarke, had taken their two children, Nathan, 5; and Grace, 2, to the United States and refused to return.

Kristen Clarke, who was born in the United States, responded by claiming in court papers that the children would be in "grave danger" if returned to Australia because, she alleged, Michael Clarke had sexually abused his son.

In May, Stengel ruled in favor of Michael Clarke, concluding that the allegations of sexual abuse had not been proven and had stemmed from the "overtly suggestive" techniques of a Pennsylvania psychologist whose practices "were designed to lead [Nathan] to say that his father abused him."
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The psychologist, Joanne Cohen Hamilton, had testified that "play therapy" in which Nathan would draw pictures, act and play games, revealed evidence of sexual abuse.'