A federal judge in Maryland awarded a plaintiff in an Individuals with Disabilities Education Act case $80,000 in attorney fees—roughly 30% of the $269,054.80 that was initially sought—after finding the bulk of the request to be unreasonable.

"Comparing the extraordinarily wide scope of these requests to the relatively limited success plaintiff in fact achieved, the court finds $80,000 to be an appropriate, even generous award," Judge Peter Messite of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland wrote in a Jan. 25 opinion in Reyes v. Board of Education for Prince George's County Public Schools.