E.D. New York cuts ERISA benefits fee award, including for clerical work

What happened

The fee applicant sought fees in an ERISA benefits case after a default motion on a petition to confirm an arbitration award. The magistrate judge recommended reducing the 31.1 hours billed to 27.1 hours. The court found 25 hours on the default motion excessive, noted that some of the 16 associate hours were administrative, and applied a 25% reduction to those 16 hours for block billing and vague entries, reducing them by 4 hours and $1,240.

What the court said

16 hours were billed by associates at a rate of $310, despite the fact that some of this work was administrative in nature.

the Court recommends applying an across-the-board reduction of 25% to the 16 hours associates billed toward the default motion

the Court finds the billing records to be unclear and vague because the description for a single entry often included numerous tasks.

The court also reduced the award for: excessive hours.

Why it matters

The ruling shows that courts will reduce fee awards when time records combine multiple tasks in one entry or describe work vaguely, and when clerical tasks are billed at associate rates. It also shows that even modest billing records can face scrutiny for excessive hours in a default proceeding.

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 E.D. New York approves and attorney fee motions in New York federal courts.

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