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

What happened

Romspen Investment LP sought $98,217.61 in fees and costs after Dibert failed to sit for a court-ordered deposition. The court awarded $34,228.75, a reduction of $63,988.86 or 65.2%, with figures including costs. It cut time as excessive, including 7.5 hours for a response reduced to four hours, 11 hours on a motion, and 28 hours of deposition preparation reduced by 25%. It also excluded time for unsuccessful motions, unrelated corporate depositions, travel by Illinois counsel, and 0.4 hours of clerical work 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 that a fee award can be reduced sharply even where the applicant prevails, because courts examine each time entry for excess, limited success, and noncompensable tasks. It also shows that clerical tasks billed as legal work and travel by out-of-state counsel without a showing of necessity are commonly excluded from a fee award.

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.