Cite as: 535 U. S. 789 (2002)
Opinion of the Court
record hours spent on a client's matter, attorneys increasingly realized that billing by hours devoted to a case was administratively convenient; moreover, as an objective measure of a lawyer's labor, hourly billing was readily impartable to the client. Id., at 18. By the early 1970's, the practice of hourly billing had become widespread. See id., at 19, 21.
The federal courts did not swiftly settle on hourly rates as the overriding criterion for attorney's fee awards. In 1974, for example, the Fifth Circuit issued an influential opinion holding that, in setting fees under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U. S. C. § 2000e-5(k) (1970 ed.), courts should consider not only the number of hours devoted to a case but also 11 other factors. Johnson v. Georgia Highway Express, Inc., 488 F. 2d 714, 717-719 (1974).10 The lodestar method did not gain a firm foothold until the mid-1970's, see Lindy Bros. Builders, Inc. of Philadelphia v. American Radiator & Standard Sanitary Corp., 487 F. 2d 161 (CA3 1973), appeal after remand, 540 F. 2d 102 (1976), and achieved dominance in the federal courts only after this Court's decisions in Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U. S. 424 (1983), Blum v. Stenson, 465 U. S. 886 (1984), and Pennsylvania v. Delaware Valley Citizens' Council for Clean Air, 478 U. S. 546 (1986).
Since that time, "[t]he 'lodestar' figure has, as its name suggests, become the guiding light of our fee-shifting jurisprudence." Burlington v. Dague, 505 U. S. 557, 562 (1992) (relying on Hensley, Blum, and Delaware Valley to apply lodestar method to fee determination under Solid Waste Disposal Act, § 7002(e), 42 U. S. C. § 6972(e) (1988 ed.), and Clean Water Act, § 505(d), 33 U. S. C. § 1365(d) (1988 ed.), and noting prior application of lodestar method to Civil Rights Attorney's Fees Awards Act of 1976, 42 U. S. C. § 1988 (1988 ed., Supp. III); Title VII of Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U. S. C. § 2000e-5(k) (1988 ed., Supp. III); and Clean Air Act, 42 U. S. C. § 7604(d) (1988 ed.)). As we recognized in Hensley,
10 See supra, at 798-799, n. 8.
801
Page: Index Previous 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007