Lawyers in West Virginia Tire Fire Suit Reap Rewards

A settlement in West Virginia for Nitro and St. Albans residents forced indoors by a 2006 tire fire has also reaped rewards for the lawyers who represented them.

Court documents obtained by the Charleston Daily Mail show that $475,000 of the roughly $1.2 million settlement announced will go to lawyers Stuart Calwell and Alex McLaughlin.

Some 6,000 residents will get between $68.60 and $291 apiece, depending on how much time they spent inside after a Nitro warehouse containing 40,000 tires caught fire in May 2006.

Calwell and McLaughlin report they spent nearly $180,000 on the case, which involved U.S. Tire Recovery and ChemValley Properties. Neither company admits wrongdoing.

The proposed settlement must still be approved by a Kanawha County Circuit Court judge.

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Information from: Charleston Daily Mail,
http://www.dailymail.com