D. Hawaii cuts commercial fee award 78.9%, including for block billing

What happened

Goodsill Anderson Quinn & Stifel sought $1,742,745 in fees. The court reduced the lodestar by 10% for excessive hours, 20% for block billing, 5% for vague entries, and 5% for clerical work billed as legal work. It also reduced the requested paralegal hourly rates and excluded $1,427.50 for unrelated claims. The resulting amount exceeded the $367,524.91 statutory cap, so the court awarded that capped figure, a reduction of $1,375,220.09.

What the court said

a 20% reduction of the lodestar amount of $1,533,030.30 is $1,226,424.24 ($1,533,030.30 x 80%).

The Court thus elects to apply a 5% reduction to the lodestar amount to account for the inability of the Court to determine whether the hours expended on the billing entries marked

the Court finds that a 5% across-the-board reduction of the lodestar amount is proportional to the amount of clerical work billed.

The court also reduced the award for: excessive hours, hourly rate reduced, unrelated claims, other.

Why it matters

The ruling shows that block billing and vague entries can draw across-the-board percentage cuts to the lodestar, separate from reductions for excessive hours or clerical work. It also shows courts will apply a statutory cap after calculating the reduced fee, so recordkeeping problems affect the fee even when a cap ultimately controls the award.

How to keep this out of your fee petition

• Record one task per entry, each with its own time.
• Write the entry when the work happens, not at the end of the week.
• If a task really is one unit of work, say what it was and what it produced.

Cite this ruling

See hourly rates the D. Hawaii approves and attorney fee motions in Hawaii 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.