D. Rhode Island cuts civil rights fee award 58.8%, including for clerical work

What happened

Child Evangelism Fellowship of Rhode Island sought $96,162.50 in fees under 42 U.S.C. § 1988. The court awarded $39,577.18, a reduction of $56,585.32 or 58.8%. It struck 34.5 hours of legal assistant time as clerical or duplicative and vague, cut excessive or duplicative attorney hours on pleadings, a hearing, a consent order, a default motion, and fee litigation, and reduced miscellaneous charges by 50% for vague entries, totaling $5,464.53.

What the court said

the Court will strike the 34.5 hours attributed to the legal assistants.

many of these entries—such as “file notes” or “email to client”—are “too generic and, thus insufficient as a practical matter to permit a court to answer questions about excessiveness, redundancy, and the like.”

The Court will reduce these miscellaneous charges by 50% at the average billing rate of the three attorneys making these entries, for a total of $5,464.53.

The court also reduced the award for: duplicative staffing, duplicative staffing, excessive hours, excessive hours, excessive hours, fees on fees, excessive hours, duplicative staffing, excessive hours.

Why it matters

The ruling shows that courts will strike time entries that do not distinguish clerical tasks from legal work and will reduce vague entries that do not allow review for excessiveness or redundancy. It also confirms that duplicative staffing and excessive hours on routine matters can lead to substantial cuts even when the overall fee request is supported by billing records.

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

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.