E.D. California cuts disability access fee award 3.8%, including for clerical work

What happened

The fee applicant in an Americans with Disabilities Act case asked for $1,624.50 in attorney fees. The court awarded $1,562.50, a reduction of $62. It cut 0.8 hours that it found to be generally clerical work billed as legal work, reducing those entries to zero hours. It also added 0.1 hours for time spent attending a hearing by videoconference that lasted less than five minutes.

What the court said

The Court finds these entries to be generally clerical work and recommends reducing them to 0 hours.

The court also reduced the award for: other.

Why it matters

The ruling shows that courts review individual time entries and will reduce hours for tasks the court treats as clerical rather than legal, even in a modest fee request. It also shows that small adjustments can run in both directions, with the court adding time for a brief hearing appearance while cutting entries it found misclassified.

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.