D. New Jersey cuts employment fee award 29.1%, including for clerical work

What happened

The plaintiff in an employment case asked for $76,707.90 in fees and costs for 125.1 hours. Judge André M. Espinosa awarded $54,355.53, a reduction of $22,352.37 or 29.1%, leaving 90.26 hours. The court excluded time logged for administrative tasks, cut hours it found excessive for amending pleadings, reviewing a settlement offer, and filing a remand motion, removed 1.3 duplicative hours, and reduced 6.74 hours spent drafting the fee motion.

What the court said

Her time log reflects that she completed only administrative tasks, and thus an award of attorneys’ fees for that work is not warranted.

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

Why it matters

The ruling shows that courts will separate administrative tasks from legal work in a time log and will trim entries that exceed what the task reasonably required, even when the overall request is otherwise supported.

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. New Jersey approves and attorney fee motions in New Jersey 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.