OK folks,

Here's how it usually works and is probably where the "money" is going to go! This is by my own personal experience. Usually, groups such as WT have attorneys who represent their client's on a Pro-bono basic. Simply stated, that means that the attorneys only get paid for their "out-of-pocket" expenses i.e. travel, phone, fax, mailing and filling fees.

But, and it's a really BIG BUTT, almost always the deal is agreed to before hand that if the pro-bono attorney wins his/their case, "they" can collect "reasonable attorney fees" ($200+ an hour). Most attorneys keep daily phone logs and every second of that "time" that he/they "discusses" any issue of the case (might even include a fishing-viewing type of trip on one or more of the rivers involved), he will be keeping his log a running! Lets see; 8 hrs @ $200 looking over river with so and so to discuss what to do= $1600.00 + milage= $120+ meals =another $75.00 +phone calls concerning river tour another 3 hrs= $600.00 more. And when you have two "attorneys" on same trip doing it, the cost of that expositional fishing trip could easily be well over $4780.00!

I know, because I work with an attorney and get to review his billings. Even if the attorney who is doing the pro-bono work doesn't get a single penny from his "clients" that he is representing, the attorney still gets the full "tax write off" for doing his pro-bono work (anyway, that is my understanding).

So the simple fact is; if you want to take on the WDFW, make sure that your attorney is a fisherman who is willing to do it on a pro-bono basis! If you guys think that for one minute WT paid weekly or monthly payments to their attorney, then I got some real great "ocean view" property in Arizona to sell to you.

That's the Game, and that's how it is played!!


Cowlitzfisherman