D. Minnesota cuts consumer protection fee award 61.1%, including for clerical work

What happened

The Barry Law Office, Ltd. sought $68,320 in fees under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The court reduced the hourly rates, subtracted 28.7 hours billed after September 18, 2024, 1.9 hours of clerical work billed as legal work, 4.3 hours for a motion to amend, and 22.9 hours for duplicative staffing. It then applied a 10 percent across-the-board reduction for additional redundancies and inefficiencies, awarding $26,568, a reduction of $41,752 or 61.1 percent.

What the court said

The Court accordingly subtracts 1.9 hours from Barry's proposed lodestar.

The court also reduced the award for: hourly rate reduced, hourly rate reduced, other, excessive hours, duplicative staffing, duplicative staffing.

Why it matters

The ruling shows courts will separate clerical tasks from legal work and trim hours for duplicative staffing, then apply a further percentage cut to approximate inefficiencies. It also shows that time records are tested line by line, and that entries for work outside the relevant period or for tasks that did not need two lawyers can be removed before any global reduction.

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. Minnesota approves and attorney fee motions in Minnesota 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.