Ogborn wins legal battle for attorney fees

SHEPHERDSVILLE - A special judge has ordered that the McDonald’s Corp. pay a young woman over $2.4 million to pay for attorneys who represented her in a strip search civil case against the restaurant chain.

Special Circuit Judge Tom McDonald ruled that the attorney fees and other costs associated with the representation of Louise Ogborn were justified.

The parties were in Bullitt Circuit Court in September to argue and to justify the amounts requested.

In the judgment, McDonald ordered the McDonald’s Corp. pay over $1.2 million to Ann Oldfather and co-counsel Kristin Daniel for their work. Another $400,000 was set aside for four attorneys who had previously worked on some portion of the case.

Expenses of nearly $500,000 were also approved for legal work.

During the September hearing, McDonald told attorneys on both sides how difficult the case had been.

“Nothing has been easy in this case,” McDonald said during the hearing.

At the time, McDonald said it should have been an easy decision to decide upon attorney fees and expenses. However, Margaret Keane, representing McDonald’s Corp. for Greenebaum Doll and McDonald, argued that there was no way Ogborn’s attorneys could have worked so many hours on the case.

It was revealed during the hearing that legal fees for McDonald’s were over $3 million, although some of the legal work involved allegations at other restaurant locations.

Last October, a Bullitt County jury awarded Ogborn over $6 million in damages.

She was subjected to a hoax call in which the former McDonald’s employee in Mount Washington was forced to strip and perform sex acts in the office for over four hours. She said the restaurant knew of other hoax calls across the country and failed to protect her.

The jury verdict has been appealed by McDonald’s Corp.

Donna Summers, a former assistant manager, was awarded over $1 million in the case. That was also appealed.

The latest verdict against McDonald’s for attorney fees and expenses would be separate of any agreement Ogborn and her attorneys might have on the ultimate court verdict in the civil case.