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 You
Paid for This? School Boards Hiring High Priced Attorneys to
Fight Parents!
WAVY News 10, Portsmouth, Virginia, November 4, 2003
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http://www.bridges4kids.org.
Hampton Roads
taxpayers have paid millions of tax dollars to high powered law
firms to represent local school boards, often times in disputes
with parents over special education students.
The parents of these students say they want due process for
their children, to give them every opportunity.
But critics argue school boards are spending your money to hire
expensive attorneys to defeat the parents and the children.
Making matters worse, the cities and counties aren't even using
attorney's already on the payrolls.
Mark Jacob helps parents negotiate the special education maze
for their children through his group PADDA - or People With
Attentional And Developmental Disabilities Association.
As an advocate for children with disabilities, PADDA and Jacob
often face high powered, high paid attorneys hired by public
school systems to resolve or litigate disagreements between
parents and the schools. And guess who's paying for those legal
services? You.
"It's outrageous behavior on the part of the school division,"
says Jacob.
Jacob says he has been across the table from the Reed Smith Law
Firm in Richmond.
Jacob estimates attorney Kathleen Mehfoud represents 70 to 80
school boards, and has brought to her law firm millions of
dollars of tax payers money.
WAVY News 10 has learned Newport News paid her law firm $49,000
for one case alone.
Newport News claims it was a specialized, complicated, federal
case that needed an expert attorney.
Elsewhere in Hampton Roads, cash strapped Gloucester County paid
$26,000 to Mehfoud for one case.
"Kathy Mehfoud has special expertise in the area of special
education regulations, so she's up to date on federal and state
regulations, and in special ed, we have a lot of regulations
that we have to follow," Fran Goforth of the Gloucester Public
Schools told WAVY News 10.
The city of Hampton paid her $8300 for one case.
"We had run this past our city attorney who is much more of a
generalist, but who also at the same time, was on a project
herself, and the case needed immediate attention," says Ann
Stephens of the Hampton Public Schools.
To the argument that outside attorney's are needed for this
specialized legislation, Jacob says 'comeon.'
"Schools are spending outrageous sums of money to hire outside
attorneys who's only duty is to stand in the door way of, and
preclude access to special education services," says Jacob.
Kathleen Mehfoud did not return phone calls from WAVY News 10,
but you can't blame her. She's just doing her job.
Consider this, Chesapeake taxpayers paid $138,000 last year to
Kaufman & Canoles for legal work that firm did for the
Chesapeake school board.
Newport News State Senator Marty Williams is proposing
legislation that would prohibit outside firms from doing legal
work when a city or country attorney is available to do it.
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