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Greater Georgia Amusements LLC v. State of Georgia

A contingency fee agreement for two special assistant district attorneys violated public policy.

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In July 2010, J. David Miller, District Attorney of the Southern Judicial Circuit, appointed Michael Lambros and Christopher Cohilas as special assistant district attorneys for the purpose of pursuing the State’s claims against a number of Moultrie convenience stores. The contract hiring Lambros and Cohilas specified that they would receive fees in the amount of at least one-third of the gross amount recovered by them on behalf of the State. Moultrie police had seized six electronic gaming machines owned by appellant Greater Georgia Amusements, and the State filed a complaint for forfeiture against in rem defendants including these machines and for injunctive relief and receivership against in personam defendants R & R Quick Mart and its owner, Pushpa Patel, alleging inter alia that the in personam defendants’ provision of the machines violated the Georgia Racketeers and Corrupt Organizations Act “Georgia RICO”, OCGA § 16-14-1 et seq.1 Appellant moved to disqualify Lambros and Cohilas on the grounds that they were improperly appointed and that their contract and fee arrangements violated public policy, exceeded the authority of the District Attorney, and violated the Georgia Constitution. The trial court denied the motion to disqualify and issued a certificate of immediate review. Appellant filed an interlocutory appeal in the Supreme Court of Georgia, which transferred the case to this Court. We granted appellant’s application for interlocutory review and now reverse on the ground that the contract employing Lambros and Cohilas is void as against Georgia public policy.

The contract at issue in this case provided that the district attorney would employ Lambros and Cohilas to represent the State “in connection with any and all civil claims it may have” against any persons or entities “arising out of the 2010 Gambling/RICO investigation” of eight convenience stores in Moultrie. The district attorney also agreed to pay Lambros and Cohilas

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