N.D. New York cuts fee award 64.1%, including for block billing

What happened

Barclay Damon LLP, counsel for Cayuga Nation, requested $656,599.88 in fees for 1,595.1 hours. The court awarded $235,743.75, a reduction of $420,856.13 or 64.1%. It reduced the hourly rate for several timekeepers and then applied a 55% reduction to the total hours, finding the Nation's proposed reduction insufficient for limited success and citing billing entries for counterclaims, third-party claims, and dismissed defendants, block billing, overstaffing at trial, and inefficiencies.

What the court said

The Court has also considered the above-identified issues in billing records, the inclusion of billing entries concerning counterclaims and third-party claims, as well as dismissed defendants, block-billing, and overstaffing at trial.

The court also reduced the award for: limited success, unrelated claims, duplicative staffing, excessive hours, hourly rate reduced.

Why it matters

The ruling shows that a court may apply a single percentage cut across all hours when time records contain several problems at once, including block billing, rather than parsing each entry. It also shows that limited success and billing entries tied to unsuccessful claims can drive reductions larger than a party proposes.

How to keep this out of your fee petition

• Record one task per entry, each with its own time.
• Write the entry when the work happens, not at the end of the week.
• If a task really is one unit of work, say what it was and what it produced.

Cite this ruling

See hourly rates the N.D. New York approves and attorney fee motions in New York 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.