District of Columbia cuts FOIA fee award, including for clerical work

What happened

Tobias sought attorney fees under FOIA in litigation against the U.S. Department of Interior. The court did not state totals for the request or the award. It excluded eighteen 0.1-hour entries billed as legal work but clerical in nature, totaling 1.8 hours and $403.60. It also reduced a subset of entries by 50%, or $484.65, for excessive hours. Judge Royce C. Lamberth applied both reductions in the order.

What the court said

The Court will therefore exclude the eighteen 0.1-hour entries, billed for a total of $403.60, from Tobias's award.

The court also reduced the award for: excessive hours.

Why it matters

The ruling shows courts will separate clerical tasks from legal work line by line and cut entries that do not reflect attorney judgment. It also shows that even small subsets of hours can be halved when the court finds the time excessive, so the description attached to each entry matters as much as the 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 District of Columbia approves and attorney fee motions in District of Columbia federal courts.

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