The "copyright trolling" law firm formerly known as Prenda Law has been hit with a succession of punishing judicial orders since the original slapdown by US District Judge Otis Wright in May. Prenda, which has sued thousands of Internet users over allegations of illegal porn downloads, has been accused of forging signatures on key documents and planting the porn files it sued over.

Wednesday evening, just before the Thanksgiving holiday, Prenda got its latest fee order. Coming in at a whopping $261,025.11, the order (PDF) by US District Judge Patrick Murphy more than doubles the amount that Prenda-linked lawyers owed from four previous decisions and tells them to pay defendants' legal fees.

The newest order isn't just about the Benjamins, though. Judge Murphy has issued the most sharply worded opinion yet. He points out additional evidence that despite their protestations to the contrary, Paul Hansmeier, John Steele, and Paul Duffy "are closely associated and acted in concert" to file the lawsuit in question. Under this order, the trio are "jointly and severally liable" for the fees.

Not only do they originate from the same law firm, but they used the same login information on the court's electronic filing system.

At a November hearing, Hansmeier and Steele "both flat-out lied about their association with Prenda Law," writes Murphy. He continues:

These men have shown a relentless willingness to lie to the Court on paper and in person, despite being on notice that they were facing sanctions in this Court, being sanctioned by other courts, and being referred to state and federal bars, the United States Attorney in at least two districts, one state Attorney General, and the Internal Revenue Service.

Murphy also dismisses other Prenda claims that came up, such as Hansmeier and Steele's complaints that they weren't properly served—a complaint they have made in other cases. The judge writes that "Hansmeier and Steele both received all the process they were due." He goes on to note that notices were sent to several addresses on Steele's constantly rotating list of e-mail addresses, including docket@wefightpiracy.com, an address used by both Duffy and Steele.

They both had "adequate notice" of the motion and the deadline for response, but they "chose to disregard it."

That has resulted in this whopper of a fee award. Unlike other awards, Hansmeier, Steele and Duffy are personally liable for this award. This case in Murphy's court is the Prenda case where they made the ill-fated choice to actually sue Comcast and AT&T directly. The two ISPs weren't producing customer information as fast as Prenda wanted it. Ars writer Tim Lee suggested at the time that the move was a "strategic blunder." The Prenda "porn trolls" were really just an annoyance to the ISPs until they sued the companies; that put AT&T and Comcast in a situation where "they will be strongly motivated to win the case and ensure that no one tries this tactic again," wrote Lee.

Last month, Murphy said that he would be awarding fees in this case. The poor showing by Hansmeier, Steele, and Duffy since then has obviously made him more upset, resulting in Wednesday's massive fee award.

"By naming Comcast and AT&T as Defendants without any valid claims in an attempt to make an end run around the Illinois Supreme Court’s denial of discovery, Plaintiff unreasonably and vexatiously multiplied the proceedings in this matter," writes Murphy.

That resulted in Murphy giving the ISPs every penny in fees they asked for. AT&T was awarded $119,637, Comcast was awarded $69,021. That's all in addition to $72,367 awarded to the defendant, Anthony Smith, for a total of $261,025.