E.D. New York cuts wage and hour fee award 47.7%, including for clerical work

What happened

Troy Law, PLLC sought $110,239.5 in fees under the Fair Labor Standards Act for 261.62 hours. The court awarded $57,670, a reduction of $52,569.5 or 47.7%. It reduced the hourly rates for the timekeepers. It cut Mr. Troy's hours by 25% for clerical billing, excessive hours, and duplicative staffing, and made smaller cuts for travel time and excessive entries.

What the court said

Because of the prevalence of improper billing in Mr. Troy's invoices, balanced against Plaintiffs' success in this case, I will reduce only his hours by 25%.

0.33 hours for preparing a laptop for a settlement conference (id. 7), and 0.17 for mailing documents (id. 8)

The court also reduced the award for: hourly rate reduced, excessive hours, duplicative staffing, other, excessive hours, travel time, excessive hours, excessive hours, travel time, travel time, other.

Why it matters

The ruling shows courts will separate rate and hour adjustments and will reduce a timekeeper's hours when invoices mix clerical tasks with legal work. It also shows courts applying percentage cuts to specific entries for travel and excess, rather than accepting a fee petition's totals as submitted.

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 E.D. New York approves and attorney fee motions in New York 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.