D. Arizona cuts fee award 21.5%, including for clerical work

What happened

The plaintiff sought $28,942.25 in attorney fees. The court awarded $22,731.75, a reduction of $6,210.50 or 21.5%. It cut 1 hour from a 1.25-hour entry for a pro hac vice motion as excessive, and removed several small entries (0.2 to 0.33 hours) it considered clerical. It also excluded 2.75, 0.2, 4.0, and 2.5 hours of work directed at a defendant other than the one against whom fees were sought, and 0.2 hours for counsel's error.

What the court said

The Court considers this to be a clerical task.

This is a clerical task.

This particular entry does not apply to Defendant Mariscos El Tiburon, and the Court considers it clerical in this case.

The Court deems this clerical.

The court also reduced the award for: excessive hours, unrelated claims, unrelated claims, other, unrelated claims, unrelated claims.

Why it matters

The ruling shows that courts will reduce fee awards for time entries that describe clerical tasks as legal work, for work on claims or parties not covered by the fee request, and for excessive time on simple filings. Each entry is examined individually, and small deductions can add up to a meaningful cut.

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 D. Arizona approves and attorney fee motions in Arizona federal courts.

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