S.D. Florida cuts commercial fee award 48.1%, including for clerical work

What happened

PNC Bank sought $8,951 in attorney fees under a contract fee clause, billing 34.8 hours. The court awarded $4,644, a reduction of $4,307 or 48.1%. It reduced the hourly rates for Attorney Baio and Paralegal Lockley based on prior court awards. It deducted 0.8 hours for clerical tasks billed as legal work and 0.4 hours for vague entries, both from Lockley. It also deducted 0.5 hours from Baio, 9.8 hours for work on a renewed default judgment motion, and 4.0 hours for fee litigation.

What the court said

Both of these tasks are clerical in nature, and thus the Court recommends deducting .8 hours from Paralegal Lockley's total hours.

the Court recommends deducting .4 hours from Paralegal Lockley's total hours to account for these vague entries.

The court also reduced the award for: hourly rate reduced, hourly rate reduced, other, other, fees on fees.

Why it matters

The ruling shows that courts will reduce rates to match prior awards and will deduct time for clerical tasks and vague descriptions. It also shows that hours spent on fee litigation and on unsuccessful motions may be excluded, so time records should separate clerical from legal work and describe each task specifically.

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.