Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, corporate plaintiff demands $293,750 from City of Toledo for defending the Lake Erie Bill of Rights.
This press release was published by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) on March 13, 2020.
TOLEDO,OH: The international corporate law firm Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP, has filed a motion demanding $293,750 in corporate attorney fees from the City of Toledo, for its legal defense of the popular Lake Erie Bill of Rights (LEBOR).
Not only do corporate interests want to repress a democratically passed law that drives new protections for Lake Erie, they also want to punish the City of Toledo for siding with its own people in defending that law.
“LEBOR was enacted in response to a public water crisis. It established an enforceable human right to water,” says Markie Miller of Toledoans for Safe Water (TSW). “Now, as our government is dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, the plaintiffs are attempting to collect scarce and necessary taxpayer funds to punish us for defending our water. The corporate plaintiff did not suffer any direct harm from LEBOR and it was their decision to hire a law firm that charges over $500 per hour to sue the City after LEBOR was approved by voters. Most people cannot afford such high-priced legal counsel to defend their rights.”
(To read the rest of this press release at its original source please click HERE.)