LAWYER WATCH : Sticker Shock

Federal law entitles plaintiffs who prevail in civil rights cases to have their legal fees paid by the defendants. So lawyers for Rodney G. King, who won damages of $3.8 million from the City of Los Angeles in a civil rights suit stemming from the infamous 1991 police beating case, were entirely justified in asking the city to pay their fees.

However, the request from King’s team of more than a dozen lawyers for fees totaling $4.4 million was unseemly in its magnitude. Even more so were attorney requests that they be compensated for media interviews, appearing with King on the Oprah Winfrey and Phil Donahue television shows and attending an Oakland premiere of the movie “Malcolm X.” Ludicrous.

U.S. District Judge John G. Davies on Tuesday properly denied payment for the interviews, TV appearances and the Oakland trip. These actions, Davies wrote in a 48-page decision, had nothing to do with “obtaining a favorable result for Mr. King” but rather were for the lawyers’ “own benefit.” The judge also rejected compensation for what he called duplicative work and overstaffing.

Davies ended up awarding King’s attorneys $1.6 million--less than half of the sum they sought.

Trial lawyers already are tempting targets for late-night comedians and populist politicians. Regrettably, the excesses of King’s legal team will only provoke more vitriol against the legal profession. The many honorable members of that profession are ill-served, to say the least, by those colleagues who seek public funds for base self-promotion.