Slots case: all dollars and no sense?

May 22, 2009

Rifkin, Livingston, Levitan & Silver LLC, the firm that is representing the Laurel Racing Association, submitted its April bill this month, and here are the grand totals:

The firm asked for $329,806.80 in legal fees — 80 percent of the more than $412,000 it would have typically billed — and for nearly $40,000 in expenses.

The bill had to be submitted to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware because Laurel Racing’s parent company, Magna Entertainment, filed for Chapter 11 in March. It’s also itemized, so we know that Managing Partner Alan Rifkin spent 192.9 hours on the case at a rate of $505 per hour for a total of $97,414.50, and Partner Michael Berman spent 266.9 hours at an hourly rate of $395 for a total of $105,425.50.

OK, maybe I can see where they’re going with this. After all, the application fee was supposed to be $28.5 million, so I guess the racing association, a subsidiary of the bankrupt Magna Entertainment Corp., saved $28 million by hiring attorneys to argue their case in court.

But the longer the case, which is now in appeals, goes on the more expensive it gets....

Click here to access the full post at "On the Record."