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

What happened

Med-Stop, Inc. sought attorney fees in a commercial case. The court reduced Attorney Timlichman's fee by 30% for vague time entries, block billing and clerical work billed as legal work. It reduced Paralegal Merrill's fee by 6% for clerical work billed as legal work. It reduced Attorney Altschul's total fee by 15% for block billing and excessive hours. The court also struck nine hours spent preparing the fee motion and twelve hours for a motion to compel. No dollar totals were stated.

What the court said

The Undersigned finds that a 30% fee reduction for Attorney Timlichman is warranted, particularly considering vagueness in the time entries and the evidence of impermissible use of block billing

The Undersigned finds that a 30% fee reduction for Attorney Timlichman is warranted, particularly considering vagueness in the time entries and the evidence of impermissible use of block billing

The Undersigned finds that a 30% fee reduction for Attorney Timlichman is warranted, particularly considering vagueness in the time entries and the evidence of impermissible use of block billing

Accordingly, the Undersigned finds that a modest 6% fee reduction for Paralegal Merrill is appropriate.

the Court finds that a minimal 15% fee reduction for the total fee requested by Attorney Altschul is warranted given evidence of block billing and excessive hours.

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

Why it matters

The ruling shows courts will apply percentage cuts to a timekeeper's whole fee request when entries are vague, block billed or include clerical tasks, rather than parsing each entry. It also shows fee motions and unsuccessful motions can be trimmed, so the time records behind a fee petition face the same scrutiny as the underlying case.

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.