E.D. California cuts disability access fee award 59%, including for clerical work

What happened

The plaintiff in an Americans with Disabilities Act case requested $4,799 in attorney fees. The court awarded $1,965, a reduction of $2,834 or 59%. It cut all hours related to Akbar Huda after the plaintiff voluntarily dismissed those claims, struck duplicative 0.2 hour entries by Law and Moore on July 13, 2022 regarding service issues, excluded clerical tasks billed as legal work, found hours on the complaint excessive, found 3.5 cumulative hours on a motion to amend and amended complaint unreasonable, and reduced Law's 1.8 hours on May 14 and May 22, 2024 to one hour.

What the court said

courts have found that such a task is purely clerical and one a non-attorney could perform at a much

The court also reduced the award for: unrelated claims, duplicative staffing, excessive hours, excessive hours, excessive hours.

Why it matters

The ruling shows that courts will reduce fee awards when time records include clerical tasks, duplicative entries, work on dismissed claims, and hours the court considers excessive. It illustrates that a fee petition must separate legal work from administrative tasks and justify the time spent on each stage of the case.

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. California approves and attorney fee motions in California federal courts.

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