30-year dispute pays dividends for NY law firm

Raff & Becker has earned millions of dollars of fees for an appointment that was expected to last three years in 1983 but is now into its fourth decade.
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Back in 1983 the firm was appointed by a court to monitor the Labor Department's performance on the handling of unemployment insurance appeals. In the last 17 years alone the practice has earned US$ 16 million so the total earned is likely to be significantly higher. The original appointment was to monitor 600 appeals a year. But the firm found enough errors each time the contract was coming to an end to obtain a court order for an extension. 

'Nothing similar'

'I know of nothing even vaguely similar,' law professor John C Coffee of Columbia University told the New York Daily News. David Raff of the firm said that the Department was making progress in complying but he would not give a likely end date for the appointment. Meanwhile William Rold, a former chief administrative judge at the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board has sued the firm, alleging greed and corruption.

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