E.D. California cuts disability access fee award 7.9%, including for clerical work

What happened

The plaintiff in an Americans with Disabilities Act case requested $53,236.27 in fees and costs. The court awarded $49,029, a reduction of $4,207.27 or 7.9%, with figures including costs. It cut 1.3 hours for excessive time on the complaint and 1.0 hour for boilerplate work, deducted duplicative staffing hours, and removed 9.0 hours for waiting and no-show time. It also reduced clerical entries, including calendaring and calls, and cut 0.4 hours for clerical work billed as legal.

What the court said

the court will not award Moore's 0.3 hour entry on October 11, 2021, for making an unanswered call or Moore's 0.1 hour entry on March 1, 2022, for "attention to lack of response"

the court will deduct the 8.0 hour time entry Moore billed on December 21, 2022, for "losing the entire day to no show," and the 1.0 hour time entry Moore billed the same day for waiting for the witness to appear.

Law's 0.4 hour entry on April 8, 2022, for time spent reviewing a scheduling order and calendaring deadlines, which the court reduces to 0.1 hours

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

Why it matters

The ruling shows courts will trim fee awards when time entries include clerical tasks, waiting time, and duplicated work. Even small deductions for non-legal or unproductive entries can reduce the total, so precise time records matter on a fee petition.

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. California approves and attorney fee motions in California 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.