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Committee asks for nonconfidential rundown of pending litigation, schedules June 30 follow-up
Summary
Members requested a holistic listing of pending litigation with confidential information removed; Scott said the office will prepare and email the list and outlined when outside counsel is used and how in-house staff handles discovery and appeals.
Committee members asked City legal staff for a consolidated, nonconfidential listing of pending litigation and scheduled a June 30 meeting to review upcoming renewals and litigation-related items.
Scott said the office can prepare a listing that redacts potentially confidential material and email it to the full council. He noted the committee has rarely met in the past ("Twice in 11 years," one member said) but that staff has provided run-downs of pending cases before, sometimes in executive session.
On the use of outside counsel, Scott explained the city’s legal office is primarily transactional and not structured as a litigation-only shop. When insurance coverage applies, insurers supply outside counsel (Scott named Courtney Crowder and Wilson Green as examples). He said city attorneys handle the bulk of discovery, drafting and research in-house to reduce outside legal costs.
Scott also described the municipal court workload: prosecutions in municipal court total on the order of 13,000 to 14,000 cases a year, and the office handles appeals to circuit court; when criminal charges arise from city operations, the city sometimes engages outside prosecutors, particularly for misdemeanor matters involving employees.
Scott said he expects to have the EMT home health professional liability renewal information by the June 30 meeting. The committee directed staff to prepare the litigation listing with appropriate redactions and to circulate it by email.
