Here's the decision:
https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin...?2003cv0213-86 It's 65 pages of the Judge mostly agreeing with D.C.
After almost 22 pages of discourse on what the opposing counsel wants as rates, the court makes this statement:
Quote:
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Having carefully considered the parties’ arguments, the Court concludes that plaintiff has failed to provide the Court with sufficient evidence to support the extraordinary rates of $589/hour and $361/hour.
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This sets the tone for what follows.
The court then proceeds to use the lowest rates (USAO Laffey) and awards Mr. Gura, Mr. Neily, Mr. Levy, Mr. Healy, Ms. Possessky a rate of $420/hr and awards Mr. Huff a rate of $275/hr. The court then opines that because Mr. Levy was not a practiced litigator, the court further reduced his fee by 25%, to $315/hr.
Now comes the matter of billable hours. Claimed by the plaintifs:
- Mr. Gura: 1661 hrs.
- Mr. Neily: 808.3 hrs.
- Mr. Levy: 595.6 hrs.
- Mr. Huff: 153.6 hrs.
- Mr. Healy: 33.7 hrs.
- Ms. Possessky: 18 hrs.
The court then reduces the hrs. of Neily, Levy and Healy by 10% as inaccurate or overbilling.
The court then reduces Mr. Levy's hrs by a further 25% for vague and inadequate descriptions of the preferred entries.
The court then strikes certain events/entries in plaintiffs billing as being non-compensable items. This amounts to 7.9 hrs not allowed.
The court then strikes 102.8 hrs from plaintiffs attorneys for time spent on the cross-petition to include the rest of the
Parker plaintiffs. The court concludes that this was fractionable from the
Heller litigation and not necessary for
Heller's victory (Gura: 56.3 hrs; Neily: 27.3 hrs; Levy: 19.2 hrs).
So we end up with the following:
- Alan Gura: 1577.2 hours x $420/hour = $662,424.00
- Clark Neily: 700.2 hours x $420/hour = $294,084.00
- Robert Levy: 320.7 hours x $315/hour = $101,020.50; and 77 hours x $157.50/hour = $12,127.50
- Thomas Huff: 153.6 hours x $275/hour = $42,240.00
- Gene Healy: 30.3 hours x $420/hour = $12,726.00
- Laura Possessky: 18 hours x $420/hour = $7,560.00
For a total of $1,132,182.00 in attorney fees. Mr. Levy was also awarded $4,890.27 for reasonable expenses.
The Judge then declined any other enhancements, basically saying that the case was normal and not extraordinary in any way.
At this point, D.C. owes the money and it can now be charged legal interest (7.5% = .625% per month = ~$7K per month compounded) for every month that goes by without payment.