N.D. Georgia cuts employment fee award, including for clerical work

What happened

The plaintiff sought fees under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The court deducted 2.5 hours each from two timekeepers for time not shown to be compensable, 2.8 hours from one, 5.6 hours and 0.6 hours for an unemployment compensation proceeding, 2 hours for travel, and hours for clerical tasks such as filing, exhibit preparation, and equipment testing. It also applied an additional 5% reduction to total fees and costs for block billing. The figures include costs.

What the court said

the Court will reduce 1.1 hours (0.1 hours deducted from each entry) and 0.1 hours from Mr. Keebaugh's and Mr. Radford's time for document filing, respectively.

the Court will reduce Edna Trutt's time by 5 hours and Ila Wade's time by 15 hours to eliminate the costs associated with these tasks.

The Court will, however, deduct 0.5 hours from Mr. Keebaugh's time to account for the preparation of exhibits, which the Court has already determined constitutes a clerical task.

the Court also finds that it is appropriate to reduce Mr. Keebaugh's time by 2 hours to deduct the May 9, 2023 entry for "travel to courthouse to test audio/visual equipment."

the Court will impose only an additional 5% reduction to total fees and costs on top of the specific deductions for block billing in this case.

The court also reduced the award for: excessive hours, excessive hours, other, other, travel time.

Why it matters

The ruling shows courts will separate clerical tasks from legal work and deduct the corresponding hours, and will add a percentage cut for block billing even after specific deductions. It also shows that time records must link entries to compensable work, since unexplained or unrelated entries were removed.

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 N.D. Georgia approves and attorney fee motions in Georgia 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.