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April 16, 2001, he was owed $44,884.70 “for legal work for the
evidentiary hearing and for preparation of the appeal.”7
Around December 2001, when the Defense Fund was no longer
paying Izen’s fees, he began entering into individual engagement
contracts with various nontest case petitioners. Pursuant to
those contracts, Izen undertook to “take all the necessary legal
actions and file the necessary papers for intervention of all
non-test case Petitioners in the appeal” as well as “take all
necessary actions on appeal to obtain a reversal of” the
decisions entered in the test cases. Although the contracts
recite Izen’s billing rate as $300 per hour, they limit the
client’s obligation to 24 monthly payments of $200 (or, in one
case, $100). The contracts also provide that “Attorney’s
previous bill which the Steering Committee refused to pay and his
bill for work on the appeal since April, 2001 shall be paid by
payments under this Agreement unless paid from another source.”
Also in December 2001, the steering committee of the Defense
Fund replaced Minns with Porter & Hedges, L.L.P. (Porter &
Hedges). Although Porter & Hedges attorneys Henry Binder and
John A. Irvine entered appearances in the test case appeal on
behalf of the Dixons, DuFresnes, and Owenses, Minns remained
7 By the time the case went to trial, the business manager,
Geoffrey Sjostrom, was the only remaining defendant. After a
jury verdict in favor of the defendant, the court entered a take
nothing judgment. That judgment is currently on appeal to the
Fourteenth Court of Appeals in Texas.
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