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<br /> <br />and legal assistants at the rates of $30.03 and $20.02 per hour <br />respectively. These fees are, of course, well below prevailing <br />market rates. It is the position of the state that awards of <br />attorneys fees based, as in this case, on a finding that the <br />bringing and/or maintaining of the action or its defense were <br />frivolous or groundless are punitive in nature and are designed <br />and intended both to punish those engaging in such practices <br />and to discourage other potential litigants from similar <br />conduct. See, e.~., C.R.S. 1973, 13-17-101 e~t she .; Rules 11, <br />121 sec. 1~.5,-Z`o'Lo. R. Civ. P. The public pricy embodied in <br />these provisions and in such awards of attorneys fees is best <br />served where the award is based on reasonable, prevailing market <br />rates in the community for attorneys of comparable experience <br />handling similar litigation. An award based only on the low <br />rate charged to state agencies would undermine the policy of <br />punishing and thereby discouraging the harassment of state <br />officials and agencies through the filing and prosecution of <br />frivolous lawsuits, and would indeed make such litigation <br />against the state less risky, and therefore more attractive to <br />the potential litigant,than actions against private parties. <br />See also, C.R.S. 1973, 13-17-104 ("The attorney and his client <br />sTial~emain free to negotiate in private the actual fee which <br />the client is to pay his attorney.") The above rates are well <br />within the range of prevailing market rates in the community. <br />-3- <br />