Judge Denies Some Attorney Reimbursements in Freedom Bankruptcy Case

A judge won’t let the West Virginia company at the center of a January chemical spill reimburse its legal team for sending multiple lawyers to hearings or for travel costs.

Judge Ronald Pearson denied several Freedom Industries requests to pay law firms for work during bankruptcy proceedings. Pearson objected to firms overstaffing meetings and hearings, charging full rates for travel and asking for excessive reimbursement.
 
Pearson approved about $722,000 in payments to Freedom’s various lawyers and consultants Monday. The court denied thousands of dollars in fees and requested more information on hundreds of thousands more.

The January spill contaminated drinking water for 300,000 people for days.
 
Dozens of lawsuits against Freedom are frozen while the company works out bankruptcy issues. Businesses temporarily shuttered without clean water filed many of them.