TIMMONSVILLE -- Willcox, Buyck and Williams Law Firm in Florence filed a judgement against the Town of Timmonsville in February. The law firm is asking Circuit Court Judge Thomas Russo to order Timmonsville to make arrangements to pay roughly $120,000 in outstanding legal bills.
Russo presided over a hearing concerning the judgement Thursday morning.
The firm represented the town for five years before its services were terminated in Februrary.
"They may not want to pay me. They may not want to pay my law firm, but the fact is we provided them the services. The work has been performed and they owe us the money. We compromised on the amount that was owed. We reduced it by almost $20,000," said Mark Buyck, III.
During the court hearing, the new attorney for Timmonsville, Eleazer Carter, argued the town's former administrator didn't have the authority to sign a confession of judgement with the law firm, an agreement acknowledging the debt.
Carter says any financial matters of that magnitude are handled by the administrator and council.
"When it comes to a bill that definitely exceeds a 100 close to 150 thousand dollars certainly it would not allow any one employee in a small town to make a decision like that," said Carter.
However, town's former lawyers say that's not true. They argue it was the administrator's duty to handle the business of the town. They told the judge the administrator negotiated a number of settlements with businesses for the town that didn't require the approval of council.
"Everyday, everyday I mean the administrator was making hundreds of decisions every single day and he can't call a council meeting everytime they get a bill," explained Buyck.
Timmonsville Mayor Darrick Jackson took the stand on behalf of his town. He told the court a town ordinance doesn't allow administrators to handle financial matters that exceed $5,000.
The judge has to determine the duties of the administrator and if he had the authority to enter into the agreement with the law firm.
Both sides plan to present evidence in support of their argument at another hearing in a couple of weeks.
