- 26 - decided under Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, we concluded in Harper v. Commissioner, supra, that a reasonable hourly rate is the hourly fee that attorneys of similar skill in the area would typically be entitled to for the type of work in question. See id. at 551, and cases cited therein. We agree with respondent that Messrs. Izen, Jones, and Sticht have failed, in varying degrees, to provide the Court with sufficient information to determine the exact number of excess hours that they reasonably expended in these cases as a result of the Government misconduct, and that Messrs. Jones and Sticht have neither addressed the reasonableness of their hourly rates nor furnished detailed billing statements. We are particularly troubled by Mr. Izen's persistent failure to produce the documentation requested by the Court despite repeated extensions of time for compliance. Nevertheless, the fact remains that the test case and nontest case petitioners who participated in the evidentiary hearing, as well as many other Kersting petitioners who were not formal participants in the evidentiary hearing but agreed to help fund the effort, incurred substantial attorney's fees and costs following the remand of the test cases by the Court of Appeals. Though presented with less than an ideal record, we shall award attorney's fees to petitioners based upon an approximation of the amount of the excess attorney's fees and costs that petitioners incurred as a consequence of the Government misconduct. See Ragan v. Commissioner, 135 F.3d 329,Page: Previous 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011