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issued, and a petition was filed with this Court during January
1997. In the pretrial setting, petitioners’ attorney advanced
the same argument--that the settlement payment was not for
punitive damages because the total amount of the payments was
insufficient to cover the cost to repair the damage to the
residence.
A substantial portion of the trial preparation by
petitioners’ attorneys occurred approximately 1 year after the
Appeals conference and during the 3-month period immediately
preceding the trial. During their preparation for trial,
petitioners’ attorneys obtained the insurance company’s files,
and they contacted the attorney who represented the insurance
company. Based on the information procured in preparation for
trial, petitioners developed evidence showing that the insurance
company did not intend any part of the $130,000 as payment for
petitioners’ claim that the company had acted in bad faith.
Petitioners’ attorney’s billable time, when divided into
three periods representing the time in Appeals, the pretrial
period before extensive preparation, and the 3 months preceding
trial, is reflected in the following comparative schedule:
Billable
Case pending in Time period amount Percentage
Appeals Sept.-Dec. 1996 $1,848 5.2
Tax Court Jan.-Dec. 1997 5,884 16.4
Tax Court Jan.-Mar. 1998 28,147 78.4
Totals 35,879 100.0
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Last modified: May 25, 2011