D. Colorado cuts social security fee award 3.1% over clerical work

What happened

The plaintiff in a Social Security case sought $8,730.09 in attorney fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act for 42.2 hours. The court awarded $8,458.10, a reduction of $271.99 or 3.1%. It deducted 2.6 hours of clerical billing entries that had been billed as legal work. The court did not state a separate percentage for that deduction. The figures do not include costs.

What the court said

The deductible clerical billing entries thus total 2.6 hours.

Why it matters

The ruling shows that courts will separate clerical tasks from legal work when reviewing time records on a fee petition, and will reduce the award for entries that bill clerical activity at legal rates even when the overall cut is small.

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.

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