James v. Dist. of Columbia
James v. Dist. of Columbia
Opinion of the Court
I. INTRODUCTION
Plaintiff Theresa James, acting on behalf of her minor granddaughter, V.J., seeks an award of attorneys' fees and costs under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act ("IDEA"),
After considering the parties' submissions and the relevant law, the court grants in part and denies in part Plaintiff's Motion for Attorney Fees. The court awards attorneys' fees and costs to Plaintiff, calculated at an hourly rate of 75% of the United States Attorney's Office Matrix, in the amount of $75,286.78.
II. BACKGROUND
The court described the factual and procedural background of this case in its previous opinion, which resolved the parties' cross-motions for summary judgment and remanded for further administrative proceedings, and it need not repeat those details here. See generally James v. District of Columbia ,
Thereafter, on May 18, 2017, Plaintiff filed a motion requesting $93,676.78 in attorneys' fees and costs. See generally Pl.'s Mot. Defendant District of Columbia opposed Plaintiff's motion on June 26, 2017, claiming that Plaintiff is not entitled to the full award that she seeks. See Def.'s Opp'n. Plaintiff's motion is now ripe for consideration.
III. LEGAL STANDARD
The IDEA provides "a fee-shifting provision entitling a prevailing party ... to reasonable attorneys' fees." Price v. District of Columbia ,
Because the IDEA "provides no further guidance for determining an appropriate fee award,"
The burden of establishing entitlement to a fee award under the IDEA rests with the fee applicant. See
IV. DISCUSSION
Plaintiff in this case seeks an award of fees for the services of two attorneys: Nicholas Ostrem and Douglas Tyrka. See Pl.'s Mot., Ex. 2, ECF No. 27-3 [hereinafter Billing Itemization]; Pl.'s Mot., Ex. 3, ECF No. 27-4 [hereinafter Ostrem Decl.]; Pl.'s Mot., Ex. 4, ECF No. 27-5 [hereinafter Tyrka Decl.]. Both Ostrem and Tyrka practice in Washington, D.C. Ostrem Decl. ¶ 10; Tyrka Decl. ¶¶ 11-12. Ostrem is a solo practitioner and represented Plaintiff in the administrative proceedings underlying this case. Ostrem Decl. ¶¶ 2, 15. Tyrka is the sole owner of the law firm Tyrka & Associates, LLC, and functions primarily as a solo practitioner. Tyrka Decl. ¶¶ 2, 42. From his billing records, it appears that Tyrka represented Plaintiff only in the federal court litigation. See Billing Itemization at 36-37. Plaintiff seeks an hourly rate of $395 for Ostrem and $516 for Tyrka. See Billing Itemization. These rates align with the rates for lawyers of comparable years of experience as reflected in the United States Attorney's Office ("USAO") Attorney's Fees Matrix [hereinafter "the USAO Matrix"]. Pl.'s Mot. at 9; see Pl.'s Mot., Ex. 11, ECF No. 27-12 [hereinafter USAO Matrix]. The USAO Matrix is a matrix of hourly billing rates for attorneys and paralegals/law clerks maintained by the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia. See USAO Matrix at 1 n.1. The rates in the matrix "were calculated from average hourly rates reported in 2011 survey data for the D.C. metropolitan area, which rates were adjusted for inflation with the Producer Price Index-Office of Lawyers (PPI-OL) index."
Defendant challenges only the reasonableness of the attorneys' fees and costs sought by Plaintiff. See id. at 6, 18-19. Starting with the attorneys' fees, Defendant makes two basic objections. First, Defendant argues that Plaintiff has provided "insufficient evidence that the hourly rate in the USAO Matrix is the 'prevailing market rate' for attorneys practicing IDEA law in the District," and that Plaintiff's counsel's invoice inappropriately relies on current rather than historical market rates. Id. at 1, 15-17. Defendant proposes that Plaintiff's attorneys' hourly rates should not exceed 75% of the USAO Laffey or USAO Matrix rates, respectively, depending on the time period in which the services were performed.
The court addresses each of these issues below, starting with the reasonableness of the hourly rate (and thus the overall attorneys' fee award), and then turning to the reimbursement rate for Plaintiff's copying costs.
A. Reasonable Hourly Rate for Attorneys' Fees
To be reasonable, an IDEA fee award must be "based on rates prevailing in the community in which the action or proceeding arose for the kind and quality of services furnished."
1. Prevailing Market Rate
Determining the prevailing market rate is "inherently difficult." Eley ,
Such evidence can take one of two forms. See Lee v. District of Columbia , No. 15-cv-1802, --- F.Supp.3d ----, ----,
Plaintiff invokes the second method of establishing the prevailing market rate, asserting that her requested rates for Ostrem and Tyrka are "in line with those prevailing in the community for similar services by lawyers of reasonably comparable skill, experience, and reputation."
In this case, Plaintiff attaches to her Motion the following proof to justify the hourly rates she proposes: (1) her counsel's declarations; (2) an itemization of the tasks performed, hours expended, and rates charged by her counsel in this case; (3) declarations from five attorneys who practice special education law; (4) various attorney fees matrices; (5) a Statement of Interest filed by the United States in a different IDEA case, Eley v. District of Columbia ,
None of this evidence, however, even when taken together, successfully establishes that the prevailing market rates for IDEA litigators in the District of Columbia are those reflected in the USAO Matrix.
The court begins with the Plaintiff's declarations from other IDEA practitioners in the District, Charles Moran and Stevie Nabors, in which each lawyer says that he now charges the USAO Matrix rate. See Pl.'s Mot., Ex. 5, Decl. of Charles A. Moran, Esq., ECF No. 27-6 [hereinafter Moran Decl.]; Pl.'s Mot., Ex. 6, Decl. of Stevie Nabors, Esq., ECF No. 27-7 [hereinafter Nabors Decl.]; see also Pl.'s Reply Regarding Fees & Costs, ECF No. 32 [hereinafter Pl.'s Reply], at 4 n.2 (noting that the only declarations offered in support of rates earned on the market were from her counsel Tyrka and attorneys Moran and Nabors). This court recently confronted virtually identical declarations in Lee and concluded that Moran and Nabors had failed to demonstrate whether they charged-and received -the USAO Matrix rates from hourly-paying clients. --- F.Supp.3d at ----,
*221The same fate befalls the rest of the statements made by Moran and Nabors in their declarations. Both attorneys attest that their firm has twice surveyed fellow IDEA practitioners and found that they too charge USAO Matrix rates. See Moran Decl. ¶¶ 6-7; Nabors Decl. ¶¶ 4-5. In a similar vein, both assert that they agree with the conclusion reached in a market survey discussed by the USAO in its Statement of Interest filed in the Eley case post-remand, see Moran Decl. ¶ 8; Nabors Decl. ¶ 6; see also Pl.'s Mot., Ex. 12, ECF No. 27-13. The court found this evidence insufficient to establish the prevailing market rate in Lee , and there is no reason to revisit that decision here. See --- F.Supp.3d at ----,
Next, Plaintiff points to the USAO Matrix itself. See Pl.'s Mot. at 9. To be sure, in Eley , the D.C. Circuit recognized that fee matrices may serve as a "useful starting point in calculating the prevailing market rate."
More importantly, any doubt about whether the USAO Matrix is intended to apply to complex federal litigation is answered by the United States' Statement of Interest in a recent IDEA case, D.L. v. District of Columbia ,
Plaintiff offers two other types of evidence to establish that the prevailing market rates for IDEA work in the District of Columbia are in fact reflected in the USAO Matrix. First, she cites several recent IDEA cases in this District Court in *222which judges have awarded USAO Matrix rates. Pl.'s Mot. at 11. But many of those cases relied heavily upon declarations that, by and large, stated that IDEA practitioners bill time at the USAO Matrix rate or higher, without any elaboration. Lee , --- F.Supp.3d at ----,
The second type of evidence relied upon by Plaintiff is a survey regarding the hourly rates earned by IDEA practitioners in this area. Pl.'s Mot. at 11-12; see Pl.'s Mot., Ex. 13, Verified Statement of Dr. Andrea R. Berger, ECF No. 27-14 [hereinafter Berger Decl.], ¶¶ 4, 7, 9. Plaintiff's attorneys commissioned this survey from Dr. Andrea Berger, "an expert in survey design and implementation." Pl.'s Mot. at 12; see Berger Decl. ¶¶ 3-4. Dr. Berger found that, when she placed the surveyed lawyers in the same experience groups as the USAO Matrix, the rate for almost every group was within 6% of the USAO Matrix, and the rate for Plaintiff's counsel was within 5% of the Matrix. Berger Decl. ¶ 13.
Dr. Berger's evidence is the type of evidence that gets Plaintiff closer to satisfying her burden, but it does not get her close enough. "A statistically reliable, well-documented, and extensive survey of the rates clients pay for a certain sub-market of legal services [can] be powerfully persuasive." Eley ,
Thus far, then, the court finds that the evidence presented by Plaintiff falls short of meeting her initial burden to establish "the prevailing market rates in the relevant community for attorneys of comparable skill, experience, and reputation," in the manner required by Reed . See
The court finds that the evidence submitted in support of that argument does not satisfy Plaintiff's initial burden of establishing that the USAO Matrix rates should be treated as the prevailing market rates. But even if she has met her burden, Defendant has come forward with evidence that rebuts that showing.
Once more, Plaintiff offers several types of evidence in support of her argument. First, she offers the declarations of five attorneys who practice in this jurisdiction (including her own counsel), all of whom "claim that potential IDEA clients were turned away because the attorney could not afford to represent them." Def.'s Opp'n at 13; see Pl.'s Mot. at 12-13; see also Ostrem Decl. ¶¶ 12-15; Tyrka Decl. ¶¶ 13-48; Pl.'s Mot., Ex. 8, Verified Statement of Maria G. Mendoza, ECF No. 27-9 [hereinafter Mendoza Decl.], ¶¶ 8-12; Pl.'s Mot., Ex. 9, Verified Statement of Domiento C.R. Hill, ECF No. 27-10 [hereinafter Hill Decl.], ¶¶ 3-9; Pl.'s Mot., Ex. 10, Verified Statement of Diana M. Savit, ECF No. 27-11 [hereinafter Savit Decl.], ¶¶ 6-8.
Additionally, Plaintiff relies upon two exhibits submitted in support of a fees petition in another IDEA case in this district: Thomas ,
*224Pl.'s Mot. at 13 (quoting Thomas ,
Lastly, Plaintiff points to DCPS's own statistics, showing that "parent attorneys filed 3,261 administrative complaints for parents and students" in 2007-2008, "before the District began refusing to settle cases and began arguing for 75% rates," but filed only 457 in 2014-2015. Pl.'s Mot. at 14 (citing IDEA Section 618 Data Products: State Level Data Files , U.S. Dep't of Educ., https://www2.ed.gov/programs/osepidea/618-data/state-level-data-files/index.html); see also Tyrka Decl. ¶ 31. This downward trend, Plaintiff claims, is attributable to the diminished availability of counsel to represent non-hourly-paying IDEA clients. Cf. Pl.'s Mot. at 14. To further support the argument, Plaintiff cites a report filed in 2014 by a class-action monitor in Blackman v. District of Columbia , No. 97-cv-1629 (D.D.C.), ECF No. 2428 [hereinafter Blackman Report]. In the report, the monitor observed: "The number of attorneys who represent primarily an indigent clientele has declined over the years and several have communicated with the Court Monitor and attributed their abandonment of the special education practice or the representation of indigent parents to the District's attorney fee payment policies." See id. at 32.
Defendant does not directly challenge Plaintiff's evidence. See Def.'s Opp'n at 13. Rather, Defendant points to its own evidence, which it contends is sufficient to rebut the "presumption of reasonableness" of Plaintiff's proposed hourly rate. See id. at 13-14; Covington ,
Defendant argues that these statistics both demonstrate that the actual prevailing market rate for attorneys practicing IDEA litigation in the District is 75% of the applicable Laffey or USAO Matrix rate, and show that this rate is sufficient to attract competent counsel. Def.'s Opp'n at 14. As to the latter, the court agrees. Defendant's evidence shows that even though DCPS consistently has agreed only to pay 75% of the USAO Laffey Matrix rates in each case where the parties have reached an agreement on attorneys' fees during the past few years, plaintiffs' counsel have continued to represent clients in IDEA cases in the District and to agree to such rates. Indeed, IDEA counsel have agreed to such rates in a clear majority of cases, at least where a settlement was reached. See Hayes Decl. ¶ 5 (approximately 80% of invoices resulting in settlement for 75% rate in FY 2014); id. ¶ 6 (approximately 68% in FY 2015); id. ¶ 7 (approximately 74% in FY 2016). Admittedly, the fact that Plaintiff is able to point to a handful of attorneys who have found these rates to be too low to allow them to maintain a full-time practice serving almost exclusively non-paying IDEA clients is not insignificant. It is also true, as Plaintiff *225asserts, that settlements may be an inexact proxy for the prevailing rate for a variety a reasons, including that some lawyers "may find it necessary to accept something in the short term, to keep the lights on," in lieu of protracted litigation. Pl.'s Reply at 10. But at the end of the day, Defendant's statistics undermine Plaintiff's largely anecdotal evidence that Defendant's rates "have resulted in the broad evacuation of competent counsel from IDEA litigation." See id. at 11.
This conclusion is only reinforced by the relative subjectivity of Plaintiff's own proof. For example, some of Plaintiff's declarations show that counsel continues to pursue IDEA work and accept the 75% USAO Matrix rate, despite the financial difficulty it may impose. See Hill Decl. ¶ 9; cf. Cox ,
The same is true of the complaints of the special education attorneys' roundtable discussed in the Blackman class-action monitor's report for the 2012-2013 school year. See, e.g., Blackman Report at 32 (noting that members of the roundtable "believe that the decline in the number of due process complaints is the result of a concerted effort on the part of the District to limit their representation of parents by refusing to pay reasonable attorneys['] fees in a timely manner " (emphasis added) ). Moreover, the monitor's observations are based only on anecdotal evidence-rather weak proof when compared to the statistical analysis supplied by the District.
And finally, although Plaintiff's statistical evidence shows that markedly fewer administrative complaints have been filed by IDEA attorneys in recent years, the court cannot conclude that the decrease is the result of the availability of fewer lawyers to take on IDEA cases. Indeed, Plaintiff does not show that the reduction in administrative complaints is directly-let alone primarily-attributable to the hourly rate, as opposed to other factors. In other words, Plaintiff's evidence supports correlation, but not necessarily causation. While the D.C. Circuit has yet to define the precise contours of a fee applicant's evidentiary burden to demonstrate the prevailing market rate, see Flood ,
In sum, Plaintiff has not shown that the USAO Matrix rates represent the prevailing market rates in the relevant community for IDEA attorneys with skill, experience, and reputation comparable to that of her counsel. Thus, the court finds the prevailing rates for IDEA litigation in the District of Columbia are equivalent to 75% of the applicable USAO matrix, as defined below.
2. Current v. Historical Rate
The court's conclusion that the prevailing market rate is 75% of the applicable USAO matrix begs the question: Which USAO Matrix should the court apply, and when? Plaintiff asks the court to apply the USAO Matrix for the year 2016-2017, i.e., the current market rates. See Pl.'s Mot. at 14-15; USAO Matrix. Plaintiff asserts that the delay in receiving her fee award warrants the application of current rates. See Pl.'s Mot. at 14-15; Pl.'s Reply at 11-12. Defendant opposes this request. See Def.'s Opp'n at 15-17. Defendant maintains that the court should instead apply the matrix rates that were applicable at the time the services were performed. Id. at 15. If the court were to adopt Defendant's approach, it would apply the USAO Laffey Matrix for years 2003-2014, the USAO Laffey Matrix for years 2014-2015, the USAO Matrix for the year 2015-2016, and the USAO Matrix for the year 2016-2017, depending on the years in which Ostrem's and Tyrka's services were performed for Plaintiff and V.J. See id. at 19-22; Def.'s Opp'n, Ex. 3, ECF No. 29-3.
The Supreme Court has condoned the use of current rates in calculating a reasonable fee award in order to account for a delay in payment "several years after the services were rendered." Missouri v. Jenkins ,
Title VII provides that prevailing parties may recover a "reasonable attorney's fee as part of the costs." .... The Supreme Court has held that there is strong presumption that the fee yielded by the now-ubiquitous "lodestar" method, which bases fees on the prevailing market rates in the relevant community, is reasonable. But in Title VII cases like this one, attorneys are often not paid until long after services are rendered, and "payment today for services rendered long in the past deprives the eventual recipient of the value of the use of the money in the meantime ...."
West v. Potter ,
Courts in this district routinely apply the foregoing principles to determine whether current rates should be used in calculating a reasonable fee under the IDEA's fee-shifting provision. See, e.g., D.L. ,
In this case, the delay in payment is over five years, when measured from the *227date Plaintiff retained Ostrem, see Billing Itemization at 1, and over three years, when measured from the date Plaintiff retained Tyrka, see id. at 36. Although other judges in this district have found a three-year delay to be insufficient to warrant the application of current rates, see, e.g., Reed ,
Defendant attempts to distinguish the cases that discuss when a delay in payment may warrant the application of current rates by reasoning that, unlike in those cases, the relevant IDEA fee-shifting provision prohibits the use of multipliers in calculating fee awards. Def.'s Opp'n at 15 (citing
If the district court recalculates the lodestar figure to incorporate current rates, then an enhancement of the lodestar to account for delay is not appropriate in this case. In Copeland v. Marshall [641 F.2d 880 , 893 n.23 (D.C. Cir. 1980) ] we stated that an increase for delay is generally not appropriate "if the 'lodestar' itself is based on present hourly rates, rather than the lesser rates applicable to the time period in which the services were rendered." Likewise, we noted in National Association of Concerned Veterans v. Secretary of Defense [675 F.2d 1319 , 1329 (D.C. Cir. 1982) ] that "where the hourly rate used in computing the lodestar is based on present hourly rates a delay factor has implicitly been recognized and no adjustment for delay should be allowed." The principle stated in these two decisions applies to the instant case.
More recently, in Perdue v. Kenny A. ex rel. Winn , the Supreme Court noted that in many cases, where attorneys "presumably understand[ ] that payment of fees will generally not come until the end of the case, if at all," compensation for such delay "is generally made 'either by basing the *228award on current rates or by adjusting the fee based on historical rates to reflect its present value,' "
Thus, given the passage of time since Plaintiffs' lawyers rendered their services, the court will use current USAO Matrix rates to calculate Plaintiff's fee award.
3. Rate for Fees-on-Fees
Defendant also argues that the hourly rate for the time spent preparing Plaintiff's fee petition (i.e., "fees-on-fees") should be awarded at 50% of the applicable rate. See Def.'s Opp'n at 18, 20-22. "IDEA litigants are entitled to receive compensation for the hours expended pursuing an initial fee award in District Court." Reed ,
While Defendant points to other cases in this jurisdiction that have applied an hourly rate equal to 50% of the Laffey rate, see Def.'s Opp'n at 18 (citing cases), the court finds those cases unpersuasive. All of those decisions were issued prior to Reed , where the court upheld the district court's decision to apply the same hourly rate to fees-on-fees.
Thus, the court will apply the same prevailing market rate (75% of the USAO Matrix rate) to calculate Plaintiff's fees-on-fees. To hold otherwise would "increase the burden on the courts and unnecessarily protract the litigation without advancing the goals of IDEA." McNeil ,
B. Reasonableness of Copying Costs
At last, the court turns to Defendant's final objection: the reasonableness of the rate at which Plaintiff seeks reimbursement for copying costs. Attorneys are entitled to "all expenses associated *229with the litigation that [they] would normally expect to pass on to fee paying clients, so long as the costs are reasonable." Cox ,
According to Plaintiff's counsel's invoice, Ostrem incurred $0.25 per page in copying costs. See Billing Itemization at 34-35. In his declaration, Ostrem states that the copying charges were "billed at the same rate authorized by the District of Columbia Superior Court for use by court-appointed special education attorneys." Ostrem Decl. ¶ 9. "Courts in this district, however, have held that $0.25 per page is an excessive rate." Reed ,
* * *
In summary, after considering the evidence submitted by the parties, the court finds Plaintiff has not carried her burden to show that the full USAO Matrix rates she requests are the prevailing market rates in the relevant community for IDEA attorneys of comparable skill, experience, and reputation as her counsel. Instead, as explained above, the Court will award fees in this case at 75% of the current USAO Matrix rates. Accordingly, the court awards fees at the current hourly rate of $249, $254.25, and $296.25, respectively, for Ostrem, depending on the level of experience he had at the time the services were performed,
With respect to Tyrka and Ostrem's expenses, the court awards Plaintiff the full amount she seeks, with the exception of Ostrem's copying costs. The court reduces those costs to $0.15 per page.
The total fees and costs award breakdown is as follows:
*230Ostrem: $37,585.28 ($37,110.30 in fees and $474.98 in costs) Tyrka: $37,701.50 ($37,216.50 in fees and $485 in costs) Total: $75,286.78
V. CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, the court grants in part and denies in part Plaintiff's Motion for Attorney's Fees, ECF No. 27, and awards $75,286.78 in attorneys' fees and costs under the IDEA. A separate order accompanies this Memorandum Opinion.
The "Laffey Matrix," as established in Laffey v. Northwest Airlines, Inc. ,
Although Plaintiff's counsel attest that their firms customarily charge hourly rates matching those in the Salazar /LSI Matrix, which are "considerably higher" than the rates set out in the USAO Matrix, Plaintiff only requests that the court award fees based on the USAO Matrix. See Pl.'s Mot. at 8; Ostrem Decl. ¶ 8; Tyrka Decl. ¶ 8. Defendant also relies upon the current USAO Matrix to calculate Plaintiff's attorneys' fees (albeit at a lesser percentage). See Def.'s Opp'n at 6, 20-22. Because Defendant urges the court to apply matrix rates that were applicable at the time the services were performed in calculating Plaintiff's fees, however, see id. at 15-17, Defendant also relies upon historical USAO Laffey Matrix and USAO Matrix rates, see id. at 19-22. Compare USAO Matrix, with Def.'s Opp'n, Ex. 3, ECF No. 29-3.
Defendant also appears to challenge Plaintiff's evidence of the first element used to determine a reasonable hourly rate-the attorneys' billing practices. See Def.'s Opp'n at 6-9. But to the extent Defendant raises this challenge, it does so in the context of arguing that Plaintiff cannot satisfy her burden to establish that the USAO Matrix represents the prevailing market rate for IDEA litigation. See id. Thus, the court will address this argument in its discussion of the prevailing market rate. Defendant does not, however, challenge Plaintiff's evidence as to the second element-the attorneys' skill, experience, and reputation. See Pl.'s Mot. at 14; cf. Def.'s Opp'n at 6-15. Having reviewed the declarations of Plaintiffs' attorneys Ostrem and Tyrka, and given the court's knowledge of Mr. Tyrka's reputation in particular, the court finds Plaintiff has adequately demonstrated the skill, experience, and reputation of Plaintiffs' attorneys in the field of IDEA litigation. See Ostrem Decl. ¶¶ 10-11, 13; Tyrka Decl. ¶¶ 11-13.
This court invites IDEA practitioners to show that IDEA litigation constitutes complex federal litigation, even though the court in Reed observed that to do so "will not be easy." Reed ,
As noted above, Plaintiff also relies on Tyrka's declaration to establish the prevailing market rate. Pl.'s Reply at 4 n.2. Tyrka's declaration is more detailed. Tyrka says that his firm has always charged hourly rates that align with those set out in the Salazar /LSI Matrix, see Tyrka Decl. ¶ 8, which are "considerably higher" than the USAO Matrix rate requested in this case, Pl.'s Mot. at 8; see Pl.'s Mot., Ex. 7, ECF 27-8. He also attests that "the firm has had several clients pay the firm at the LSI Laffey Matrix rates directly," Tyrka Decl. ¶ 9, and suggests that many of his current clients are fee-paying clients, see id. ¶ 44. But whatever the probative value of Tyrka's declaration, the law is clear that Plaintiff must produce evidence "in addition to the attorney's own affidavits." Eley ,
The court reaches the same conclusion as to Daniels v. District of Columbia , No. 14-cv-665,
In her reply brief, Plaintiff asserts that Defendant is foreclosed from arguing that its rates are sufficient to attract competent counsel by the doctrine of issue preclusion. Pl.'s Reply at 11. That is a strange argument. While Plaintiff claims the issue was "actually determined" by the court in Thomas, see
The court, however, finds it inappropriate to order Defendant to pay "an additional $1,000 for each delay of a month or part thereof in payment." Pl.'s Mot. at 15. Plaintiff raises this request in passing in the conclusion section of her fees petition, and cites only one case in which a court has awarded post-judgment interest in advance of a possible future delay in payment. See
Although the court uses 75% of the current rates reflected in the USAO Matrix to calculate Plaintiff's fee award, it uses the current rates that would have been applicable to each attorney based on his level of experience. So, for example, although Ostrem had roughly 9 years of experience in May 2017 when he billed his last hours, see Def.'s Opp'n at 21, the court will not apply the current USAO Matrix rate of $296.25 (75% of $395) for attorneys with 8-10 years of experience to hours Ostrem billed in February 2013, when he had only roughly 4 years of experience, see
The court arrived at the total fees amount by multiplying the hourly rates discussed above by the hours reflected in Plaintiff's counsel's invoice, see Billing Itemization; Pl.'s Reply, Ex. 1, ECF No. 32-1. See generally Def.'s Opp'n at 19-25. If Plaintiff believes the court has erred in calculating the number of hours expended, the court welcomes a motion to modify the judgment. Plaintiff shall file such motion no later than 14 days from this date.
Reference
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- Theresa JAMES v. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
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