D. Maryland cuts FOIA fee award 61.4%, including for vague entries

What happened

The plaintiff sought $54,560 in FOIA fees for 88.8 hours. The court awarded $21,090, a reduction of $33,470 or 61.4%. It set the hourly rate at the high end of Appendix B of the Local Rules. It then reduced the claimed hours by 25% to account for overbilling and by a further 25% because the time entries were too vague to show what work was done. The award totaled 44.4 hours.

What the court said

To account for these insufficient descriptions, the Court will further reduce the Center's claimed hours by an additional 25%.

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

Why it matters

The ruling shows that a fee petition can lose a large share of its value even when the court accepts the basic entitlement to fees. Courts will cut hours for entries that do not describe the work, and they may apply separate reductions for overbilling, so the descriptions in time records carry real weight.

How to keep this out of your fee petition

• Name the task, the document or person involved, and the purpose.
• Avoid stock phrases that could describe any day in any matter.
• Keep privileged detail general, but specific enough to show the work.

Cite this ruling

See hourly rates the D. Maryland approves and attorney fee motions in Maryland federal courts.

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