- 55 -
D. Computation of Potentially Compensable Fees
We now determine the amount of claimed fees that, to the
extent paid or incurred by real parties in interest who satisfy
section 7430’s net worth requirement (hereafter, eligible
persons), see infra Part III.F., are compensable under section
7430. Where the fee requests reflect the use of “block billing”
(i.e., the assignment of multiple discrete tasks to a single
block of time), we use our best judgment to allocate the
aggregate amount of time among the various tasks.
1. The Hongsermeiers--Work on the Appeal48
a. 2001
Taking into account the $140 rate cap in effect for 2001,
the Hongsermeiers claim 377.17 hours at $140 per hour, 31 hours
at $100 per hour, and 17.69 hours at $50 per hour. Regarding the
50-percent reduction for time deemed attributable to both the
dispute with the steering committee and the appeal, we have
assigned 16.4 hours in December to client communications (Minns:
8.5 hours; associate attorney: 4.5 hours; legal assistant: 3.4
hours). We therefore (1) reduce the $140 (Minns) time by 4.25
hours (50% of 8.5 = 4.25), leaving 372.92 hours; (2) reduce the
$100 (associate) time by 2.25 hours (50% of 4.5 = 2.25), leaving
48 Because the Defense Fund retained Minns to pursue the
appeal and a separate group subsequently retained him to pursue
appellate fees, we compute the potentially compensable fees with
respect to those two engagements separately. The Hongsermeiers
claim $220,201 for work on the appeal and $56,233.75 for work on
the fee request.
Page: Previous 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 NextLast modified: May 25, 2011