Carriers for San Diego Paper Awarded Nearly $5M A judge has awarded $10 million to newspaper carriers and their lawyers in a lawsuit against the former owner of the San Diego Union-Tribune. The judge says about 1,200 carriers who delivered papers from 2005 through mid-2007 were employees entitled to reimbursement for their car mileage and other expenses - not independent contractors who had to cover their own costs. He ruled last month that the carriers should get $5 million, of which $1 million will go to their lawyers. On Tuesday, the judge awarded another $5 million to the lawyers. Attorneys for The Copley Press - the former owners - didn't immediately comment. The paper is under new ownership and now is called U-T San Diego. Orange County Register carriers won $38 million in a similar lawsuit in 2009.