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to be offered as his direct testimony under Rule 143(f). In
ruling that the Attorney Benjamin’s report on a matter of
domestic law would not be received as an expert’s opinion under
Rule 143(f), the Court did not question Attorney Benjamin’s
expertise or review whether he was qualified. The Court
suggested that Attorney Benjamin’s opinion was in effect a legal
brief that could be attached to the estates’ posttrial briefs in
further support of their position on the legal questions
associated with the partition of Louisiana realty. The estates
did attach Attorney Benjamin’s report or opinion to their opening
posttrial brief.
As part of its claim for litigation costs, each estate
included $19,298.50 attributable to the law firm of Jones,
Walker, Waechter, Poitevent, Carrere & Denegre, L.L.P. (Jones
firm) for a “Study Analysis re: * * * [Louisiana] Co-Ownership
and Partition Law”. The $19,298.50 represents one-half of the
$38,597.00 for legal work by the Jones firm. In particular,
$18,470.00 of the $38,597.00 is represented by billings of
Attorney Benjamin representing 25.10 hours at $343.03
($8,610.00), 28.00 hours at $350.00 ($9,800), and .20 hours at
$300.00 ($60). The remaining $20,127.00 of the $38,597.00 was
attributable, in smaller amounts, to eight other individuals in
the Jones firm. The hourly billing rates for the eight
individuals, other than
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