A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has ordered an attorney who worked on a lawsuit against the Department of Water and Power over faulty bills to pay back $1.65 million in fees that he earned in the case.
The attorney, Michael Libman, was also ordered to pay more than $116,000 in sanctions, cited for contempt of court and fined $44,000 by Judge Elihu M. Berle.
Berle’s ruling marks another significant disciplinary action in litigation stemming from the DWP overbilling debacle. Berle last year fined the city of Los Angeles $2.5 million in sanctions after finding that the city and its attorneys abused the discovery process during a related case over the billing errors.
At a court hearing Thursday, Libman denied wrongdoing and told Berle he was the target of a “medieval persecution.”
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