S.D. Indiana cuts consumer protection fee award 60.6%, including for clerical work

What happened

The plaintiff's firm, DeMarte Law, PLLC, requested $19,117.50 in attorney fees under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The court awarded $7,526.75, a reduction of $11,590.75 or 60.6%. The court reduced hours it found excessive, unnecessary, or redundant; applied percentage reductions for time spent on clerical tasks and for vague entries; and reduced by 70% the fees incurred after the plaintiff declined a substantial settlement offer on November 8, 2023, citing limited success and billing excesses.

What the court said

A percentage reduction is thus warranted to account for the disallowance of time spent on clerical tasks.

Accordingly, a reasonable percentage reduction is also warranted here to account for these unexplained and unrevealing entries.

The court also reduced the award for: excessive hours, limited success.

Why it matters

The ruling shows that a fee award can be cut on several independent grounds at once, and that time records matter: entries that do not explain the work or that bill clerical tasks as legal work support percentage reductions, separate from reductions for excessive hours and limited success.

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 S.D. Indiana approves and attorney fee motions in Indiana 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.