(La Porte, IN) - La Porte County attorney Shaw Friedman is asking the La Porte County Council to pressure the La Porte County Auditor to pay his claims.  In writing, Friedman told the council he’s now having to dip into the savings of his law firm to meet payroll and other operating expenses.

 

Friedman said Stabosz owes him over $12,000 now and expects Stabosz to withhold a similar amount for work performed for the commissioners from the subsequent checks scheduled to be cut in five days.  Friedman asks the council to pass a resolution advising him he must pay him since he was ordered to by the commissioners and directed by the Indiana State Board of Accounts to pay.

 

He also wants the council to reverse its recent decision to pay Stabosz’s legal defense for ignoring orders from the commissioners who asked a judge to issue a court order for Stabosz to pay Friedman.

 

Stabosz has vowed to continue withholding future payments to Friedman until Friedman provides him with the information he needs to verify some of the work he questions was for actual legal services.  Friedman said his job as county attorney covers a broad scope, and he’s duty-bound at times to go outside the boundaries of strictly legal work.

 

“As a governmental attorney who has advised various governmental entities for 37-years, I find this among the most uninformed and ill-advised of the many claims he has made against me since he has absolutely no statutory or regulatory authority on which to challenge my billings on that basis,” Friedman said.