N.D. Texas cuts commercial fee award 20%, including for clerical work

What happened

Mackie Wolf Zientz & Mann, P.C., counsel for Deutsche Bank National Trust Company, sought $5,260.50 under a contract fee clause. Judge Sam A. Lindsay awarded $4,208.40, a reduction of $1,052.10 or 20%. The court found the hours unreasonable because the attorneys did not exercise billing judgment, noted over 10 duplicative entries totaling over 3 hours spent reviewing the docket and the ruling on the motion for default judgment, and found certain billed tasks largely administrative and inappropriate to bill.

What the court said

The Court finds these sorts of tasks to be largely administrative and an inappropriate item to bill.

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

Why it matters

The ruling shows that a fee applicant's own invoices can support a percentage cut when they show repeated review entries and administrative tasks billed as legal work. Courts may apply a single across the board reduction rather than parse each entry, so the quality of the time records shapes the size of the award.

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 N.D. Texas approves and attorney fee motions in Texas 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.