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in 2012, State lawmakers awarded a 15 million dollar claim to the family of a boy born brain dead at Lee Memorial Hospital. But lawmakers added a caveat

: the lawyers could only get a hundred thousand dollars, even though their contract says they are entitled to 25 percent. Attorney Chris Searcy told the court that injured children would never find a lawyer if the court allowed the hundred thousand dollar fee to stand.

Afterwards claims lawyer Neal Roth called the legislative action political payback.

“There we’re some people in the legislature, at the time when this finally happened,  who did not like the Searcy Denny firm, did not like members of the plantiff’s bar, and this was going to teach a lesson” says Roth.

The court asked tough questions about the wording of the fee arrangement and of legislative intent. A ruling is expected in several months.