S.D. Florida cuts wage and hour fee award 13.6%, including for clerical work

What happened

The fee applicant in this Fair Labor Standards Act case sought $20,640 in attorney fees. The court awarded $17,840, a reduction of $2,800. It reduced the hourly rate, found instances of double billing where two attorneys charged for tasks requiring only one, and observed several entries for tasks such as reviewing docket entries and other simple functions that appeared excessive. The court also applied an additional 10 percent across-the-board cut to the hours.

What the court said

the Court observed several entries spent on tasks such as reviewing docket entries and other simple functions that, read together, appear excessive.

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

Why it matters

The ruling shows that courts examine time entries for duplicative staffing and for clerical tasks billed as legal work, and will reduce the rate and hours accordingly. It also shows that a court may apply an across-the-board percentage cut when individual entries appear excessive, rather than parsing each one.

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.