Microsoft ordered to pay Mass legal fees

Kollar-Kotelly strikes again

By Ashlee Vance in Chicago • Get more from this author

Posted in Business, 23rd September 2003 01:19 GMT

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Microsoft is to cough up $1 million in legal fees to Massachusetts - the lone state pursuing an appeal against the 2002 antitrust ruling.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has ordered Microsoft to shell out $967,014, which is about half of the $1,992,075 sought by Massachusetts. The fees cover six years of work fighting Microsoft.

Kollar-Kotelly, known best for her limp wrist, sided with Microsoft, saying Massachusetts is not terribly talented as keeping books. She called the state "haphazard and incomplete" in following Massachusetts law. The judge was forced to "decipher the legal and factual basis" for the legal fees.

Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly did not let the judge's penny-pinching get him down.

"I am pleased that Microsoft will pay for the costs associated with this antitrust action and look forward to upcoming arguments in federal appeals court," Reilly said in a statement. "This case has serious implications for competition and consumers and will have a significant impact on the future direction of our economy."

Microsoft, of course, argues that the state did not actually win most of its claims and is not entitled to the fees at all. ®

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