How have the courts treated attorney's fees in a remedial proceeding?

Anticipating that the district court would also order the prison officials to pay the prisoners' legal expenses during the remedial phase -and seeking to minimize the procedural burdens associated with periodic fee awards -the parties stipulated to, and on September 21, 1995, the district court authorized, an "informal process" of expediting the payments of attorney's fees. Pursuant to this stipulation, which reflected the law at the time, see Pennsylvania v. Delaware Valley Citizens' Council for Clean Air, 478 U.S. 546, 561 (1986); Blum v. Stenson, 465 U.S. 886, 895 (1984), the prison officials were to pay fees at the current market rate for all legal services that were useful and necessary to ensure compliance. ¹ If the prison officials ever disputed an amount and refused to pay, the prisoners could seek an order from the district court to resolve the dispute.