A DeKalb County judge has ordered Dunwoody resident Joe Hirsch to pay the city $182,478.10 in attorney's fees after finding his open records lawsuit was "substantially frivolous and vexatious."

Superior Court Judge David B. Irwin granted the full fee request on May 22, as first reported by Rough Draft Atlanta. In his order, Irwin wrote that Hirsch's litigation strategy "was designed to harass, intimidate, and impose unnecessary costs on the City and its employees." A final judgment on June 3 reinforced the award.

The fee order followed Irwin's Dec. 2, 2025, summary judgment in favor of the city and all individual defendants, in which he found the city and its employees had complied with the Open Records Act.

Hirsch filed his original lawsuit Oct. 31, 2023, naming City Clerk Sharon Lowery, Clerk Eric Shealy, IT Department Head Ginger LePage and the city as defendants. He alleged the employees covered up records related to an October 2021 incident involving Dunwoody Police Officer Minh Pham at Mr. Tire on Dunwoody Village Parkway. The one text message at the center of Hirsch's initial claim was between Pham and his wife, the order states, and the city had no obligation to retain it.

The scale of Hirsch's filings was extraordinary. He propounded 72 sets of written discovery comprising 4,407 discrete requests across 3,279 pages and filed 12 amended complaints totaling 3,481 pages. Yet he relied on none of the defendants' discovery responses when opposing their summary judgment motions, which Irwin said strongly indicated discovery was used as a tactical burden rather than a fact-gathering effort.

Irwin also cited Hirsch's own deposition testimony as evidence of intent: "I'm going to spend a million dollars on this and the taxpayers are going to be screwed because you in this city won't understand how important this lawsuit is to do the right thing."

Mayor Lynn Deutsch said Thursday, Aug. 13, that the ruling vindicates the named employees. She called the experience "very difficult" for city staff and said it was important for the city to seek fees for the costs of its defense.

Hirsch disputes the outcome. He said in a statement that the case remains under appeal and that his original attorney, whom he described as an expert in open records law, died just days before his response to the city's summary judgment motion was due. Hirsch said the city refused to grant an extension.

"I am confident that a full and fair review of the facts will confirm what the record already shows: that Dunwoody continues to violate multiple provisions of Georgia's Open Records Act," Hirsch said.

Hirsch filed no response brief and offered no evidence at the attorney's fees hearing. The fee award was authorized under two Georgia statutes covering frivolous litigation and Open Records Act fee-shifting.

The appeal is pending before the Georgia Court of Appeals. No hearing date has been announced.