D. Oregon cuts employment fee award 58.7%, including for clerical work

What happened

The plaintiff's counsel, Matthew C. Ellis, PC, requested $3,139,489.25 in attorney fees. The court awarded $1,295,328.29, a reduction of $1,844,160.96 or 58.7%. The court set reasonable hourly rates, excluded 8 hours for duplicative staffing, reduced a subset of entries by 50% for duplicative staffing, excluded 3.5 hours for time spent on another matter, excluded 12 hours for unrelated claims, awarded 8.25 hours of clerical work at a reduced rate and cut attorney hours accordingly, and reduced one entry by 5 hours.

What the court said

In sum, the Court will award 8.25 hours of time at $175 per hour and reduce counsel’s hours at their attorney rates as explained above (3 hours for Mr. Ellis, 5.25 hours for Mr. Brischetto).

The court also reduced the award for: hourly rate reduced, hourly rate reduced, duplicative staffing, duplicative staffing, duplicative staffing, unrelated claims, other.

Why it matters

The ruling shows courts will separate clerical tasks from legal work and pay them at a lower rate, and will scrutinize time records for duplicative staffing and unrelated claims. It also shows that even when rates are found reasonable, the overall award can be cut substantially based on the content of the time entries.

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 D. Oregon approves and attorney fee motions in Oregon 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.