Nelly is back in court drama as his attorney’s $78,000 sanctions bill faces pushback from Ali of the St. Lunatics, who claims the charges are bloated with vague entries and clerical work disguised as legal labor.
Ali Jones, who performed alongside Nelly in the Hip-Hop group, accused Nelly of copyright infringement and unjust enrichment, claiming he was denied credit and compensation for contributions to songs on Nelly’s 2000 debut album Country Grammar.
The judge tossed the lawsuit, claiming Ali waited too long to bring the lawsuit to court. Nelly was awarded attorney fees and sought over $78,000.
In a recent court filing, Ali’s legal team accused Nelly’s lawyer, Kenneth D. Freundlich, of padding invoices with inflated hours and billing high partner rates for routine tasks.
The dispute stems from a previous ruling that awarded Nelly the right to collect legal fees from attorney Precious Felder, who a federal judge found had filed baseless claims and prolonged the case with unnecessary motions.
Now, the court must determine what portion of those fees is actually reasonable.
Ali’s attorney argued the submitted bill is far from justifiable, stating Freundlich’s records were “vague, block-billed, redundant, excessive for the limited work performed, and replete with clerical tasks masked as legal work.”
The objection points to numerous entries in which Nelly’s legal team charged top-tier rates for reading court dockets, checking emails, and filing documents—tasks typically handled by support staff.
One example flagged in the filing shows a senior attorney billing for “reviewed court order” without any detail on the nature or significance of the review.
Another entry combined multiple tasks—drafting, research, filing, and internal meetings—into a single line item, making it difficult to assess how much time was spent on each.
Ali’s lawyer also took issue with what they described as an overcrowded legal team, where multiple attorneys billed for the same tasks, such as reviewing emails or editing drafts, even though the case involved no discovery, no hearings, and only a few motions.
The filing said the invoices “reflect clerical tasks billed at attorney rates” and called the hours logged for the sanctions motion “excessive and disproportionate to the work performed.”
The objection urged the judge to slash the proposed fees by at least half, arguing that the amount Nelly seeks “cannot be imposed on Plaintiff” because sanctions are meant only to reimburse costs directly tied to Felder’s misconduct.