Nickles takes on top firm in special-ed suits
By: Bill Myers
Examiner Staff Writer
March 2, 2009
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| NIckles |
D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles has taken his special education reform crusade directly to the law firm that has turned a quiet practice area into a multimillion-dollar litigation industry.
Nickles is now suing Brown & Associates, the giant of special-ed litigation in the District. Using federal laws that allow parents to recoup legal fees in special-ed cases, the firm has billed D.C. taxpayers at least $15 million since 2001, according to city records.
In his lawsuit, Nickles claims that Brown & Associates lawyers are wasting the city’s time and the taxpayers’ money. It cites a single case brought by two firm lawyers on behalf of “A.C.,” a mentally retarded teenager. The suit claims that Brown & Associates continued to press a due process complaint demanding special-ed services for A.C. even though A.C. had dropped out of school.
“It bears repeating that Washington, D.C., has more [special-ed] due process cases than the rest of the country combined,” Nickles told The Examiner this week. “It just seems to me and anyone else that hears it to be stunning. It’s indicative of abuse.”
Domiento Hill, an associate at the firm, said he and his colleagues were being blamed for the city’s failure to help its most vulnerable kids.
“It’s getting childish, quite honestly,” Hill said of Nickles’ litigation. “When we’re up to till 10, 11 o’clock at night working tirelessly trying to help these kids learn to read and write — is that what this is about? I do think that D.C. is intending to intimidate these parents.”
Nickles has sued special education lawyers before; the lawsuit filed Friday is the first time he has named Brown & Associates as a defendant. The suit seeks recovery of the city’s legal fees, as well as a declaration that the law firm’s case was “frivolous.” Such a finding could lead to ethics sanctions against the firm.
D.C.’s $300 million special education system has been in free fall for decades. It is subject to two different consent decrees because bureaucrats have regularly failed to abide by federal deadlines for caring for special needs children. The city has in recent years made incremental progress in improving services, but officials acknowledge that they are a long way from a healthy system.
Firms such as Brown & Associates have stepped into the gap. Founded by former D.C. special education hearing officer James E. Brown, the firm represents nearly half of the children who are suing the city for special-ed violations.
Nickles, a former corporate litigator with a long history of suing D.C., has found an unlikely cheering section in the D.C.-based Americans for Tort Reform.
“While we don’t always agree with AG Nickles, we certainly support him in this instance,” ATRA spokesman Darren McKinney said.
“And we hope that his lawsuit will discourage what has clearly become a cottage industry for personal injury lawyers here in the District of Columbia.”
