The Mesa County Commission on July 28 approved a legal-services contract with the law firm of Brophy Clauss, a move it expects will save money.

Mesa County Attorney Todd Starr said the contracted, monthly flat fee of $27,500 will cost less than hourly billing. It pays for civil-litigation defense, federal and state constitutional claims, and claims arising out of law enforcement operations.

“Our litigation spend swung by $253,813 between its high and low year, and I cannot tell you in January what any given year will bring,” Starr said in a news release from the county. “A flat monthly fee replaces that volatility with a fixed, budgetable line and shifts the risk of a heavy trial or appellate year to the firm instead of the county.”

According to the news release, over the past five years the county paid $2,350,662 for legal work, billed hourly. The same five years under its new agreement would have cost $1,650,000, about $700,000 less.

Litigation was previously done by Dinsmore & Shohl, where Andy Clauss and Chris Brophy worked and handled most of Mesa County’s cases. They left that firm and formed Brophy Clauss LLC.