Court Rejects $66,780 Legal Fee Request in Pekin Accessibility Case (Pekin, IL) — A federal court has denied a request for $66,780 in attorneys’ fees connected to monitoring and enforcement of Pekin’s accessibility agreement, according to a city announcement.
The decision removes a potential additional legal expense for the city. Its obligations to improve accessibility under the court-approved consent decree remain in place.
According to the announcement, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois concluded that the agreement does not require Pekin to pay plaintiffs’ attorneys for routine monitoring performed after the decree took effect. The court also found that the plaintiffs did not prevail in the later enforcement proceedings for which they sought fees.
City Attorney James Vasselli credited city employees, officials and legal counsel with documenting Pekin’s work and responding to the concerns raised during the litigation.
“I’m proud of the Pekin team for the careful, steady work that went into this matter,” Vasselli said in the announcement. “City staff, officials, and our legal team worked together to document the City’s efforts and respond to the issues raised.”
The lawsuit, filed in December 2018, challenged the accessibility of Pekin’s sidewalks, curb ramps and pedestrian crossings. A federal court approved a class settlement and entered the consent decree in November 2022, establishing requirements for improvements and oversight.
The latest fee decision follows an Aug. 10, 2026, order in which U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald L. Hanna denied the plaintiffs’ requests to enforce the decree and appoint another independent monitor. Hanna found that Pekin had complied with the agreement’s spirit and that engineering firm TWM was already conducting independent inspections.
That order cited more than $4 million in sidewalk improvements since the decree took effect. It also reported that the city had addressed 1,213 of 7,511 identified trip hazards by the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026.
“Today’s ruling recognizes the importance of the language the parties agreed to and confirms that the plaintiffs are not entitled to the fees they requested,” Vasselli said.
The court’s earlier findings also underscored the scale of the remaining accessibility work. Hanna declined to set a termination date for the decree, establishing April 23, 2029, as its earliest possible end date.
The agreement continues to require improvement records, reports to plaintiffs’ counsel, trained staff and a process for residents to submit accessibility complaints.
Court Rejects $66,780 Legal Fee Request in Pekin Accessibility Case
