S.D. Florida cuts commercial fee award 4.8%, including for clerical work

What happened

Fowler White Burnett, P.A. sought $294,440.75 in fees under a contract fee clause, billing 1,060.85 hours. The court awarded $280,194.25, a reduction of $14,246.50 or 4.8%, leaving 1,007.15 hours. It cut 3.2 hours as duplicative, 0.2 hours for clerical work on a notice of appearance, 31.7 and 9.6 hours where redactions prevented review, 0.6 and 3.1 hours for vague entries, 2.5 and 0.8 hours as excessive, and 0.2 and 0.8 hours as duplicative.

What the court said

0.2 hours for drafting a notice of appearance on 2/10/21 as such work is clerical

I have deducted 0.6 hours from Mr. Smith’s 8/30/23 entry for 0.7 hours as the entry (“Assess court’s docket re: status of . . .”) is vague

3.1 hours for vague entries that do not describe the tasks actually performed

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

Why it matters

The ruling shows courts will trim hours when time entries are vague, redacted, duplicative or describe clerical tasks, even where the overall reduction is modest. It also shows that entries must let the court verify the work was reasonably expended on the litigation.

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.

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