E.D. California cuts disability access fee award 5.6%, including for clerical work

What happened

Eisenberg & Baum sought $185,420 in fees under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The court awarded $174,958, a reduction of $10,462 or 5.6%. The reductions included $1,705 for two withdrawn entries, $150 for unrelated claims, a 10% cut to one timekeeper's hours, $4,675 for travel time, and strikes of clerical work billed as legal work. The court also applied a 20% cut to vague entries rather than striking them in full.

What the court said

The court accepts this modification and so strikes .6 hours and $330 from Mr. Rozynski's original billed amount, 4.9 hours and $735 from Ms. Dederer's original billed amount, 9.4 hours and $1,410 from Ms. Plew's original billed amount, and 4 hours and $600 from Ms. Eisenberg-Michalowski's original billed amount.

The court agrees these entries are vague. However, a twenty percent haircut is more appropriate than striking these entries in full given that defendants do not dispute counsel met with plaintiff for this amount of time.

The court also reduced the award for: duplicative staffing, unrelated claims, excessive hours, travel time.

Why it matters

The ruling shows courts will reduce fee awards for time records that mix clerical tasks with legal work and for vague descriptions, but may apply a partial cut rather than striking entries entirely when the underlying work is not disputed.

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 E.D. California approves and attorney fee motions in California federal courts.

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