RBB’s legal fees climb: 2.155 million euros

The costs of the RBB compliance investigation continue to rise. The costs for lawyers, which the public broadcaster has so far raised for compliance investigations and labor court disputes in the course of the Schlesinger affair, currently amount to 2.155 million euros. This was confirmed by the press office rbb24.

The law firm commissioned with the compliance investigation has so far invoiced 1,457,473.64 euros. A final report of the compliance investigation is not yet available. The lead law firm Lutz Abel has now set June 30, 2023 as the deadline for submission.

Free assignment

According to information from rbb24, this compliance investigation was handed over to the law firm Lutz Abel in the summer of 2022 and the award was not documented, it is said. According to the press office, this was done because of “time pressure”. The RBB confirmed that an administration in the award procedure is required to document the award of a contract in a comprehensible manner. “In this respect, a file note should have been made in the case in question, which is why the contract was awarded by private contract,” says the press office. According to the press office, because this was not done sufficiently in the case described, it shows the “necessary need for improvement in the administrative actions of rbb”.

It has also now become clear that there is no cap on legal fees, which will not prompt the law firms involved to rush. According to the press office, rbb cannot provide any information on which budget the costs will be paid from.

New Legal Counsel

After all, the RBB also had good news up its sleeve on Wednesday: the lawyer and former lawyer Kerstin Skiba is the station’s new legal adviser. The 52-year-old had already held the office temporarily in the past few months, as the RBB announced. Skiba succeeds Susann Lange, who was released from her duties as legal director by the RBB Broadcasting Council last December.