S.D. Florida cuts fee award 80.9%, including for clerical work

What happened

Koz Law, P.A. sought $12,648.97 in sanctions fees for 33.3 hours. The court awarded $2,421.47, including costs, after reducing hours for work on unrelated claims, excessive time on several tasks, limited success, and 1.1 hours of clerical tasks billed as legal work. The court also reduced the hourly rates applied to the two attorneys.

What the court said

The Court will not compensate Plaintiffs for 1.1 hours that Attorney Cuthbertson billed on January 17 and February 10 and 12 to file the Motions ... The Court considers these to be clerical tasks

The court also reduced the award for: unrelated claims, other, excessive hours, excessive hours, excessive hours, excessive hours, limited success, excessive hours, hourly rate reduced, hourly rate reduced.

Why it matters

The ruling shows that courts will separate clerical tasks from legal work and reduce hours for excessive or unsuccessful billing, even in a sanctions fee request. It also confirms that specific time entries and the nature of the task drive the final award.

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. Florida approves and attorney fee motions in Florida 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.