D. Oregon cuts consumer protection fee award 4.9%, including for block billing

What happened

The fee applicant, represented by Robert S. Sola PC, requested $4,288,343.80 for 5,851.4 hours in a consumer protection case. Judge Michael H. Simon awarded $4,076,999.77, a reduction of $211,344.03 or 4.9%. The court approved a reduced hourly rate for paralegals, reduced a subset of block-billed entries by 50% to 49.3 hours for Mr. Soumilas, 8.25 hours for Mr. Sola, and 4.4 paralegal hours, excluded 4.1 hours of vague entries and 112.8 hours of reconstructed future time, reduced clerical work by 10% (1.2 hours for Ms. Brennan and 7.58 hours for Mr. Soumilas), and excluded a 0.3-hour entry for a document filed a week earlier.

What the court said

The Court thus decreases these entries by 50 percent, to 49.3 hours billed by Mr. Soumilas, 8.25 hours billed by Mr. Sola, and 4.4 hours billed by paralegals.

The Court identifies 0.1 hour by Ms. Brennan, 1.6 hours by Mr. Soumilas, and 2.4 hours by paralegals. The Court excludes these hours in full.

The Court identifies 54.8 hours by Ms. Brennan, 42.5 hours by Mr. Soumilas, and 15.5 hours by paralegals spent on "future estimated time." The Court excludes these hours in full.

The Court reduces the total hours by ten percent: by 1.2 hours billed by Ms. Brennan and 7.58 hours billed by Mr. Soumilas.

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

Why it matters

The ruling shows that courts will reduce fee awards for time records that use block billing, contain vague descriptions, include reconstructed future time, or bill clerical tasks as legal work. Even a modest overall cut can rest on several distinct recordkeeping problems, each applied to specific entries.

How to keep this out of your fee petition

• Record one task per entry, each with its own time.
• Write the entry when the work happens, not at the end of the week.
• If a task really is one unit of work, say what it was and what it produced.

Cite this ruling

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