S.D. Florida cuts commercial fee award 65.2%, including for clerical work

What happened

Romspen sought $98,217.61 in sanctions fees, including costs. The court awarded $34,228.75, a reduction of $63,988.86 or 65.2%. It cut time for excessive hours, including a 25% reduction of one lawyer's compensable time to 21 hours, and lowered the hourly rate applied to one entry. It excluded time for unsuccessful motions, unrelated claims, travel by Illinois counsel, and clerical tasks such as preparing exhibits and making deposition arrangements.

What the court said

Second, preparing exhibits and making deposition arrangements is clerical work that is not compensable.

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

Why it matters

The ruling shows courts will examine each time entry on a sanctions fee petition and exclude hours that are excessive, unsuccessful, unrelated, or clerical, rather than accepting the requested total.

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.