- 49 - 2. Additional Adjustments to Time Claimed for the Appeals a. Missing Minns Time Entries Although Minns claims 577.42 hours of attorney and legal assistant time for his firm (i.e., not including the Lawfinders time) in the Hongsermeiers’ initial appellate fee request, the accompanying time entries for Minns and his in-house staff cover only 462.56 hours. Inasmuch as those time entries run only through January 22, 2002, they do not cover the final preparation of the brief (apparently mailed on January 25, 2002), the preparation of the reply brief, or the oral argument.43 While we are not inclined to provide Minns the opportunity to “prove up” his firm’s undocumented efforts at this late date, we likewise are not prepared to disregard those efforts altogether. Accordingly, we shall credit Minns with the 66-hour block of time he categorized as “preparing for and attending oral argument” in his submission to the Court of Appeals and disallow the remaining 48.86 undocumented hours.44 43 We note that there is no corresponding break in the Bates numbering of the documents accompanying the parties’ special stipulation of facts (filed in this Court) regarding the appellate fee requests. 44 Only 11.5 of those 48.86 hours are attributable to Minns; the balance is attributable to his associate attorney and his legal assistant.Page: Previous 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 Next
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