S.D. Texas cuts fee award 45.8%, including for clerical work

What happened

Husch Blackwell, LLP sought $875,106.75 in fees on 1,370.5 hours. The magistrate judge recommended awarding $474,283.75, a reduction of $400,823.00 or 45.8%. The court lowered hourly rates, including a paralegal rate, and excluded 9.8 hours and 17 hours of clerical work billed as legal work. It also cut fees by 10% and 5% for vague entries and by 20% for duplicative staffing.

What the court said

the Court finds that the following time was spent on non-legal work: (1) 2.1 hours of Ms. Holloway’s time ($500/hour); (2) 4.4 hours of Ms. Werner’s time ($235/hour); (3) 0.5 hours of Ms. Rudman’s time ($575/hour); and (4) 2.8 hours of Ms. Brakefield’s time ($395/hour).

After reviewing HMS’s billing records, the Court reduces HMS’s attorney fees by 10%.

Upon review of Cotiviti’s vague entries, the Court reduces Cotiviti’s attorney fees by 5%.

the Court finds that the following time was spent on non-legal work: (1) 5.3 hours of Hickey’s time; (2) 2.7 hours of Farmer’s time; (3) 7.8 hours of Farrell’s time; and (4) 1.2 hours of Sweet’s time.

Accordingly, the Court reduces CGI’s attorney fees by 10%.

The court also reduced the award for: hourly rate reduced, duplicative staffing, hourly rate reduced, duplicative staffing, hourly rate reduced, duplicative staffing.

Why it matters

The ruling shows courts will separate clerical tasks from legal work and reduce rates and totals when time entries are vague or staffing is duplicative. It also shows that recordkeeping problems can combine with rate and staffing adjustments to produce a substantial overall cut, so the fee applicant's time records carry weight at each step.

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. 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.