Idaho spending $25K a month to defend Lowe firing in court

The firing of former state Transportation Director Pam Lowe, and defending the resulting wrongful-termination lawsuit, is costing Idaho about $25,000 a month, the Idaho Statesman reports today, with the state’s legal bills for the outside lawyers it’s hired to handle the case now at $257,913 and counting. That’s just for March through December. A trial in the case is scheduled for Aug. 8, and there are a lot big legal bills to come; last month, the state submitted a 5,400-page brief in the case. You can read a full report here from Idaho Statesman reporter Cynthia Sewell, which includes questions about whether the state has cut the Idaho Attorney General’s office budget back so far that it’s having to turn to pricier alternatives like more-expensive outside counsel.