County Must Pay Legal Fees in Juvenile Hall Suit : Litigation: Judge orders government to pay $857,000 in costs arising from the case over treatment of detainees.

Orange County must pay civil rights groups $857,000 in attorney fees and legal costs arising from a lawsuit over conditions at Juvenile Hall, a judge has ruled.

The county has already spent more than $654,000 defending itself against the civil rights groups’ allegations of mistreatment of juvenile detainees, bringing the total bill for county taxpayers to more than $1.5 million.

In a decision issued last Friday, Superior Court Judge Linda H. McLaughlin had harsh words for attorneys on both sides who, she said, “overlitigated the case far beyond any justification” and acted “contrary to the best interests of Orange County taxpayers.”

But she was especially critical of county attorneys for engaging in tactics that forced their opponents to work “hundreds of unnecessary hours” for which the county now must pay.

“Plaintiffs achieved their results by overcoming the defendants’ protracted and tenacious opposition,” McLaughlin wrote.

The lawsuit, filed in 1987 on behalf of juveniles by the San Francisco-based Youth Law Center and the American Civil Liberties Union, addressed nearly three dozen separate issues, but it focused on the county Juvenile Hall procedure of tying violents youths to metal beds with cloth strips.

The rights groups argued that tie-down restraints should be abandoned altogether. During the trial, the county stopped using the cloth strips, switching to more comfortable fleece-lined leather cuffs.

After a six-week trial, McLaughlin ruled last June that the county could continue to use restraints or padded rooms to deal with violent teen-agers but that it must get approval from a psychiatrist in each case. She also agreed with civil-rights attorneys that Juvenile Hall authorities were unfairly restricting detainees’ access to lawyers.

Both sides claimed victory: the county, because it had successfully defended itself against 32 of the 35 allegations and could still use restraints, and the rights lawyers, because juveniles would no longer be tied down or placed in “rubber rooms” at the sole discretion of the Juvenile Hall staff.

This week, however, county officials’ claims of victory were tempered by the order to pay the staggering legal bills.

“I was shocked by the amount . . . considering the very few changes that resulted from this lawsuit,” said County Probation Chief Michael Schumacher, who is the top Juvenile Hall administrator. “It seemed extraordinarily high.”

Schumacher said the county had no choice but to try to win in the case when the rights groups refused to negotiate on their insistence that the tie-down restraints be abandoned altogether.

But Youth Law Center attorney Mark Soler said the case could have been settled had Schumacher been more flexible.

“They were never willing to reach any enforceable agreement on any issue,” Soler said. “I think it’s a travesty that county officials would put the county in a position of having to pay this much money in attorney fees. . . . We did a lot of work, and we’re entitled to get paid for it.”

Soler said the Youth Law Center will get about $630,000 of the award; the remainder will go to American Civil Liberties Union attorneys in Orange County and Los Angeles and to cover litigation costs.

The county has 60 days in which to appeal the award. David G. Epstein, a private attorney hired by the county in the case, said the county has not yet decided whether it will appeal.