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petitioner asserts that she meets all of the requirements under
section 7430 to recover litigation costs of $12,029.05.7 The
litigation costs petitioner claims were computed using an hourly
rate of $195 for two of petitioner’s attorneys and included a
claim of $6,354.05 for petitioner’s alleged share of attorney’s
fees (the group fees) that her attorneys had charged to two
groups of similarly situated Hoyt investor clients with pending
section 6015 claims. In support of the motion, petitioner’s
counsel attached billing records for petitioner’s account dated
March 15, 2003, through April 30, 2004, that described in detail
the attorney’s fees and costs petitioner incurred individually
and contained generic entries8 denoting monthly charges to
petitioner’s account for her alleged share of the group fees.
Although petitioner alleged that the group fees were reasonable
and reasonably allocated to her, she did not include any
supporting information or documentation with respect to the group
7Petitioner concedes that respondent’s administrative
position was substantially justified and that she is not entitled
to administrative costs because respondent did not receive notice
of Mr. Bulger’s death until Mar. 13, 2003, the date the petition
was served on respondent. Consequently, petitioner seeks only
those litigation costs incurred on or after Mar. 15, 2003.
8Although petitioner agrees that the fee summary for her
account attached to the motion describes her share of the “Group
Innocent Spouse fees” as “flat” fees, petitioner contends that
the flat fee reference is simply the way in which the Pearson-
Merriam (petitioner’s attorneys’ law firm) billing program
described sum certain fees. Petitioner’s representation is
supported by a declaration of petitioner’s counsel.
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