Cuyahoga County Common Pleas judges may sue Executive Chris Ronayne over the state of the court's facilities. The court's Administrative and Presiding Judge Michael P. Shaughnessy has been granted permission to hire Montgomery Jonson LLP to investigate the issue. The firm can charge between $100 and $300 per hour for work, billed in six-minute increments up to a total of $28,800, to be paid out of court funds. Most of this money is currently estimated to go toward the preliminary investigation phase or negotiations. A lawsuit has not yet been filed, but could follow if the parties cannot resolve the dispute. The judges are concerned that the county may spend so much on a new jail that there is no money left over for the courts.