Friday, July 1, 2005

Parks' lawyers demand payment

They ask for legal fees as part of civil rights icon's settlement against the rap group OutKast.

By David Shepardson / The Detroit News

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Lawyers for Rosa Parks squared off Thursday in U.S. District Court over how much they should receive in legal fees in the civil rights icon's settled lawsuit against a rap group.

U.S. District Judge George Caram Steeh listened to the attorneys and scheduled another hearing for July 14. No decision was made Thursday.

In April, lawyers for Parks settled a 6-year-old lawsuit over the use of Parks' name in a hit song by the rap group OutKast. Under the terms of the settlement, the 92-year-old Parks was to receive money to be used for her care and to pay bills. The settlement amount was not disclosed.

During Thursday's hearing, Steeh took the unusual step of ordering a reporter to leave the courtroom in what was listed as a public hearing in open court.

Former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer, who is Parks' legal guardian, asked that Steeh order the courtroom cleared because some terms of the settlement are confidential.

Gregory Reed, a Detroit attorney who filed suit on Parks' behalf, asked Steeh to award his law firm $220,000 and divide another $70,000 among three other firms.

He made public a letter Parks had written him in 1999 authorizing the suit and promising him one-third of any settlement.

Court records show that $150,000 in fees and costs have been paid from the settlement fund to date, including payments to law firms and to cover some of Parks' oustanding bills.

Archer expressed frustration with the lawyers in a June 17 letter to Steeh. "I would like to end my responsibility," Archer said.

Besides the cash settlement, OutKast and Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Arista Records, LLC, and LaFace Records have agreed to produce an educational DVD commemorating the 50th anniversary of Parks' arrest on Dec. 1, 1955, for failing to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger in Montgomery, Ala.

Parks has lived in Detroit since 1957.

Last year, doctors treating Parks disclosed that she suffers from dementia.

You can reach David Shepardson at (313) 222-2028 or dshepardson@detnews.com.