Trantolo & Trantolo may sue Hartford over legal defense costs

Trantolo & Trantolo sidewalk ads spark Hartford citation threat

When a series of stenciled chalk messages bearing car crash statistics and reminders to look both ways appeared on sidewalks across Hartford and West Hartford in August, the municipal response was swift. Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam publicly drew a hard line against the marketing campaign executed by Trantolo & Trantolo, comparing the sidewalk markings directly to unauthorized vandalism.

“If a young person did this is the city of Hartford, we would call it graffiti,” Mayor Arulampalam said at the time. “I don’t believe that a law firm should be treated any differently.”

Following those remarks, Hartford Police issued a citation to the law firm over the advertisements, and the city subsequently filed a grievance with the state. Meanwhile, neighboring West Hartford opted to send a clean up bill to the law firm over the advertisements.

The cost of a dismissed citation

The state declined to prosecute the citation issued by Hartford police, but that resolution came with a financial toll for the defense. Mario Cerame, a free speech lawyer with Aeton Law Partners representing Trantolo & Trantolo, stated that fighting the municipal citation required a costly legal defense to get the matter tossed out.

Now, the law firm is demanding that the city foot the bill for those legal expenses. Cerame sent a formal letter to Hartford’s corporation counsel, Jonathan Harding, warning that a lawsuit is on the horizon if the city refuses to cover the costs incurred during the defense.

“My clients should not have to subsidize the city’s violation of free speech.”

Cerame said. “If they are unwilling to cover my clients’ costs to defend against their unconstitutional misadventure — like the cost to defend against the citation and have it tossed — then yeah, there will be legal action.”

Negotiations and the path forward

Despite the threat of litigation, the door for a settlement remains open. In his communication with the city’s corporation counsel, Cerame indicated that the firm is willing to negotiate the fees with the city, urging municipal officials to act promptly.

“The city can reduce its exposure to reasonable fees with prompt action,” Cerame wrote in the letter. “Declining to do so can increase those fees by orders of magnitude, however. My clients are prepared to discuss a prompt and reasonable resolution and invite early negotiations.”

Mayor Arulampalam remains firm in his position, countering that the law firm should take responsibility for placing the advertisements. In a statement addressing the ongoing standoff, the mayor maintained that the firm ought to take accountability for their actions and move on.

“Trantolo & Trantolo was cited for graffiti, didn’t deny it was them who was responsible for the graffiti, and instead of accepting responsibility, they chose to threaten to sue me in my personal capacity for doing my job,” Arulampalam said.

As the legal threats hang in the balance, neither side has backed down from their core positions regarding sidewalk jurisdiction, leaving the next move up to municipal legal counsel as potential negotiations loom.