The London-based law firm which pursued the action against oil trading giant Trafigura over the alleged dumping of toxic waste in the Ivory Coast has claimed a record £105 million in costs.

The unprecedented figure, which Leigh Day & Co confirmed was correct, dwarfed the only known comparator - the BCCI litigation, Trafigura's QC Sean Wilken told the High Court. By contrast, he added, Trafigura's costs stood at £14 million.

Mr Wilken told Mr Justice MacDuff, who formally approved the confidential settlement of the largest ever group action last September, that if every claimant had been paid in full, that would amount to about £3 in costs for every £1 recovered. But he said that up to Easter, cheques had been cashed by 12,250 claimants - 41% of the total - and the process had stalled since the middle of March. He added that Leigh Day accepted that the costs were high.

Mr Wilken said: "In fact, we would say they are staggeringly high. I am told that this is one of the largest, if not the largest, costs claims in legal history.

"So we say this court is faced with groundbreaking claims of English lawyers in circumstances where the Ivorian claimants have not been paid in full the compensation which was supposedly the rationale of this litigation. Bluntly, we would like to know what happened to the money we paid to settle these claims."

It was later agreed between the two sides that issues raised should be dealt with by the senior High Court official who will assess costs at a further hearing at the end of this year.

The man accused of strangling his ex-girlfriend - defense attorney Margaret Allen - and killing a witness in the case will make his first court appearance at 2 p.m. today in Butler County Common Pleas Court.

Calvin McKelton, 32, will be arraigned on an 11-count indictment charging him with aggravated murder, murder, two counts of felonious assault, abuse of a corpse, intimidation of a witness, tampering with evidence, aggravated robbery, aggravated arson and two charges of domestic violence.
Allen’s body was found at Schmidt Field in Cincinnati’s East End in July 2008.

Prosecutors are expected to release more details about the case today, including information about the dead witness.

McKelton was arrested Friday afternoon near Lexington Avenue and Reading Road in Avondale by the U.S. Marshals’ Southern Ohio Fugitive Apprehension Strike Team. He faces the death penalty if convicted.

California's gay-marriage ban is again being tested as a high-profile federal-court case opened in the state Monday and immediately drew a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court.

The high court temporarily blocked the Internet broadcast of the trial, the first serious challenge in federal court to a state law against same-sex marriage.

The main issue in the case, being heard in U.S. District Court, is whether a 2008 voter initiative dubbed Proposition 8 violates the U.S. Constitution by creating a law that discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation. Defenders of Proposition 8 say it validly defined marriage in traditional terms by restricting marriage to people who could have children naturally.

Whatever the outcome in Chief Judge Vaughn Walker's courtroom, the case will likely be appealed, eventually to the U.S. Supreme Court. Five states currently permit same-sex marriage, either by statute or under their state constitutions.

A federal judge has twice rejected Michelle Kosilek’s request forelectrolysis, finding that she had not shown a “serious medical need”for the hair removal treatments.

Kosilek’s lawyers filed an amended lawsuit Friday, asking thatprison officials be required to follow recommendations for electrolysisby several doctors. Kosilek is also asking for an independentevaluation by a specialist in gender-identity disorder.

Kosilek was named Robert when convicted of killing his wife, Cheryl,in 1990. Kosilek has undergone hormone therapy and seven electrolysistreatments, and dresses as a woman in an all-male state prison.

State prison officials oppose sex-change surgery, saying it would create security problems.

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