E.D. Michigan cuts fee award 56%, including for missing contemporaneous records

What happened

The plaintiff sought $8,729.30 in attorney fees for 37.526 hours. The court awarded $3,839.50, a reduction of $4,889.80 or 56.0%. It reduced the hourly rates for attorney and legal assistant work, citing insufficient information about the legal assistants. It found 37.526 hours excessive and the fees for both the motion and amended motion redundant, and it halved the hours. It also cited inconsistencies between the initial and current requests and vague entries it could not tie to the case.

What the court said

the Court is concerned with the accuracy of the billing records submitted by Plaintiff. There are inconsistencies between the initial and current request for attorney fees as to which attorney completed certain tasks.

Some of Plaintiff’s entries are so vague that the Court cannot determine with certainty that those requests are related to this case or are reasonable.

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

Why it matters

The ruling shows that a fee petition can lose half its hours when the billing records are inconsistent or too vague to verify, and that missing information about who did the work can push rates to the bottom of the district's range.

How to keep this out of your fee petition

• Record time the same day the work happens.
• Keep the original records, not only a cleaned-up summary.
• Be able to show when each entry was created.

Cite this ruling

See hourly rates the E.D. Michigan approves and attorney fee motions in Michigan 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.