D. Colorado cuts social security fee award, including for clerical work

What happened

The plaintiff sought fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act for 57.1 hours. The court awarded 51.0 hours. It excluded 0.55 hours the plaintiff conceded were clerical tasks, reduced the requested hours by 10% for billing statements the court found inadequately detailed and for litigation inefficiency, and rounded the compensable hours down to the nearest whole hour. The court did not state dollar totals.

What the court said

Plaintiff concedes the 0.55 hours she billed for clerical tasks are noncompensable.

The Court reduces Plaintiff’s requested hours by 10% to account for inadequately detailed billing statements and litigation inefficiency.

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

Why it matters

The ruling shows that courts will separate clerical tasks from legal work and will reduce hours when time entries lack detail, even in a fee-shifting statute like the EAJA. It also shows that a single percentage cut can rest on both recordkeeping and efficiency concerns, so the billing records alone do not account for the whole reduction.

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 D. Colorado approves and attorney fee motions in Colorado 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.