Board of Trustees of the Sheet Metal Workers Health Care Trust of Northern California et al v. Total Air Balance Company, Inc.

Filing 28

ORDER DIRECTING PLAINTIFFS TO FILE SUPPLEMENTAL BRIEF RE ATTORNEYS FEES. Signed by Judge Beeler on 11/1/2011. (lblc1, COURT STAFF) (Filed on 11/1/2011)

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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

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Northern District of California

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Oakland Division
BOARD OF TRUSTEES, et al.,

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For the Northern District of California

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

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Plaintiffs,
v.

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No. C 11-0030 LB
ORDER DIRECTING PLAINTIFFS
TO FILE SUPPLEMENTAL BRIEF
RE ATTORNEYS FEES

TOTAL AIR BALANCE, INC.,
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Defendant.
_____________________________________
In the above-captioned matter, Plaintiffs filed a motion for default judgment. ECF No. 21.1

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Plaintiffs seek attorneys’ fees. Id. at 4. Plaintiffs’ counsel filed a declaration in support of the

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application for the award of attorneys’s fees. Carroll Decl., ECF No. 24 at 2, ¶ 5. The undersigned

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directs Plaintiffs’ counsel to supplement his declaration to address the deficiency identified below.

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A fee applicant must show that he exercised billing judgment in the preparation of the

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attorney’s fee application and that the requested hours were reasonably expended (i.e., not

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duplicative, unproductive, excessive or otherwise unnecessary). Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S.

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424, 434 (1983). Detailed billing records – e.g., hourly invoices – are generally required to assist

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the court in its determination of reasonable fees. See, e.g., Entm’t Research Grp., Inc. v. Genesis

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Creative Grp., Inc., 122 F.3d 1211, 1232 (9th Cir. 1997) (“[T]he district court abused its discretion

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Citations are to the clerk’s electronic case file (ECF) with pin cites to the electronic page
numbers at the top (as opposed to the bottom) of the page.
C 11-0030 LB
ORDER RE ATTORNEYS’ FEES

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by not requiring . . . original time records and billing statements.”); Hensley, 461 U.S. at 433

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(“Where the documentation of hours is inadequate, the district court may reduce the award

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accordingly.”).

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The court ORDERS Plaintiffs to file the supplemental declaration by November 15, 2011,

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and to email the billing records in Wordperfect, Microsoft Word, or Microsoft Excel format to

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[e-mail].

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IT IS SO ORDERED
Dated: November 1, 2011

________________________________
LAUREL BEELER
United States Magistrate Judge

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For the Northern District of California

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

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C 11-0030 LB
ORDER RE ATTORNEYS’ FEES

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