E.D. California cuts commercial fee award 2%, including for clerical work

What happened

Michelman & Robinson, LLP, counsel for the fee applicant, requested $1,423,058.36 in fees and costs under a contract fee clause. Judge Dale A. Drozd awarded $1,394,298.50, a reduction of $28,759.86 or 2%. The court reduced the hourly rate for paralegals to the low end of the range because no evidence showed their experience, and it excluded hours for support staff work preparing electronic document databases for review, which it found not recoverable as attorneys' fees. The figures include costs.

What the court said

Cooper appears to have performed support staff work involving preparing electronic document databases for review and those hours are not recoverable as attorneys’ fees.

The court also reduced the award for: hourly rate reduced.

Why it matters

The ruling shows that courts will reduce paralegal rates when the fee petition lacks evidence of the paralegals' experience, and will separate support staff tasks from recoverable attorney work even when the overall cut is small.

How to keep this out of your fee petition

• Leave purely clerical work off the fee petition.
• Describe paralegal tasks so the substantive work is clear.
• Split mixed entries into their substantive and clerical parts.

Cite this ruling

See hourly rates the E.D. California approves and attorney fee motions in California federal courts.

Figures and quotes are taken from the opinion and checked against its text. Spot an error? Email team@legaltime.ai with the case name and we will correct it. Summaries of public court opinions. Not legal advice.