1 – OPINION AND ORDER 

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 

FOR THE DISTRICT OF OREGON 

PORTLAND DIVISION 

JOANNE M. STURGIS, Civ. No. 3:15-cv-00122-AC 

 Plaintiff, OPINION AND ORDER 

 v. 

ASSET ACCEPTANCE, LLC, a Delaware 

Limited Liability Company, and JOHNSON 

MARK, LLC, a Utah Limited Liability 

Company, 

 Defendants. 

_______________________________________ 

ACOSTA, Magistrate Judge: 

Introduction 

Plaintiff Joanne Sturgis (“plaintiff”) filed this lawsuit on January 29, 2015, alleging 

defendants violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and caused her to 

experience significant stress. The parties reached a settlement agreement at a judicial settlement 

conference on February 25, 2016. (ECF No. 57.) The amount of the settlement is filed under 

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2 – OPINION AND ORDER 

seal with the court. The settlement agreement resolved the amount of money to be paid to 

plaintiff and directed the parties to petition the court for attorneys’ fees. Id. 

Plaintiff seeks a total of $67,113.50 in attorney fees, in addition to costs and expenses of 

$3,369.50. Plaintiff also requests an award for fees incurred in her fee application. Defendant 

Johnson Mark LLC opposes the requested attorney fees as excessive. (ECF No. 76.) Defendant 

Asset Acceptance, LLC, joins in and adopts the arguments in defendant Johnson Mark LLC’s 

opposition to plaintiff’s motion for attorney fees and costs. (ECF No. 75.) Because the 

settlement agreement includes the submission to the court the question of reasonable and 

necessary costs and fees incurred by plaintiff in the prosecution of this lawsuit, the sole issue 

before this court is the reasonableness of the requested rates and hours incurred by plaintiff’s 

counsel. For the reasons that follow, plaintiff’s motion is GRANTED IN PART and DENIED 

IN PART, and plaintiff is awarded $45,027.70 in attorneys’ fees and $3,369.50 in costs. 

Background 

 This lawsuit arose out of defendants’ conduct in seeking to collect a debt that arose from 

a Radio Shack/Citibank credit card. In November, 2013, defendants filed a lawsuit against 

plaintiff in the Marion County Circuit Court to collect on the unpaid credit card debt. (ECF No. 

1.) The Marion County court entered a default judgment against plaintiff on February 4, 2014. 

Plaintiff offered to settle the judgment and defendants sent a counteroffer for settlement on May 

5, 2014. On May 12, 2014, plaintiff learned that the bank account she jointly held with her 

husband had been garnished for the total amount of $910.01. Plaintiff then contacted defendants 

and informed them that her bank account was held jointly with her husband, and expressed her 

intent to pay the settlement amount. 

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3 – OPINION AND ORDER 

On May 29, 2014, plaintiff received a letter from Johnson Mark confirming an offer of 

settlement that did not give credit for the money that had been garnished from plaintiff’s bank 

account. Plaintiff immediately called Johnson Mark and was told that it was too late to pay the 

settlement amount. On July 5, 2014, plaintiff paid the judgment balance in full. 

Plaintiff filed this lawsuit on January 29, 2015, seeking non-economic damages of up to 

$500,000 for defendants’ violations of the FDCPA. (ECF No. 1.) Plaintiff’s complaint 

contained no allegation in which she disputed the existence or amount of debt she owed to 

defendants. 

Plaintiff filed her complaint in the Portland Division of the U.S. District Court of Oregon. 

On February 20 2015, defendant Johnson Mark moved to dismiss plaintiff’s complaint because it 

was not filed in the correct division. (ECF No. 9.) On March 2, 2015, plaintiff filed an amended 

complaint in the Portland Division. (ECF No. 16). Defendant subsequently withdrew its motion 

to dismiss. 

 In an attempt to keep costs down, defendants did not engage in discovery until late 2015, 

and Johnson Mark did not depose plaintiff until February 18, 2016, one week before the 

settlement conference. Defendants did not make attempts at settlement until about nine months 

after the case was filed. On February 25, 2016, the parties participated in good faith in a 

settlement conference and reached a settlement agreement. The parties agreed to submit to the 

court the question of plaintiff’s reasonable and necessary costs and fees in the prosecution of this 

action. On April 5, 2016, plaintiff submitted her motion for attorney fees and costs. (ECF No. 

60.) 

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4 – OPINION AND ORDER 

Discussion 

I. Attorney Fees. 

A. Legal Standards 

 The FDCPA provides that in a successful action to enforce the Statute, a debt collector 

will be liable to the consumer for “the costs of the action, together with a reasonable attorney’s 

fee as determined by the court.” 15 U.S.C. § 1692(k)(3). The FDCPA mandates an award of 

fees and costs to a prevailing consumer in order to encourage consumers to act as private 

attorneys general in order to enforce the public policy goals of the FDCPA. 15 U.S.C. § 

1692(k); Camacho v. Bridgeport Fin., Inc., 523 F.3d 973, 978 (9th Cir. 2008). 

The Ninth Circuit has adopted the “lodestar” method for calculating attorney fees. 

Camacho, 523 F.3d at 980; Fischer v. SJB–P.D. Inc., 214 F.3d 1115, 1119 (9th Cir. 2000). That 

calculation multiplies a reasonable hourly rate by the number of hours reasonably expended in 

the litigation. Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424, 433 (1983); Pennsylvania v. Del. Valley 

Citizens’ Council for Clean Air, 478 U.S. 546, 564 (1986). The court must then decide whether 

to enhance or reduce the lodestar figure by evaluating a number of factors. Moreno v. City of 

Sacramento, 534 F.3d 1106, 1111 (9th Cir. 2008); Hensley, 461 U.S. at 434. These factors 

include: (1) the time and labor required, (2) the novelty and difficulty of the questions involved, 

(3) the skill requisite to perform the legal service properly, (4) the preclusion of other 

employment by the attorney due to acceptance of the case, (5) the customary fee, (6) whether the 

fee is fixed or contingent, (7) time limitations imposed by the client or the circumstances, (8) the 

amount involved and the results obtained, (9) the experience, reputation, and ability of the 

attorneys, (10) the undesirability of the case, (11) the nature and length of the professional 

relationship with the client, and (12) awards in similar cases. Kerr v. Screen Actors Guild, Inc., 

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5 – OPINION AND ORDER 

526 F.2d 67, 70 (9th Cir. 1975), cert. den. 425 U.S. 951 (1976); Fischer, 214 F.3d at 1119. The 

court need only address those factors not already subsumed in its lodestar analysis. Hensley, 461 

U.S. at 436. There is a strong presumption that the lodestar method produces a reasonable 

figure, and should only be enhanced or reduced in exceptional circumstances. Del. Valley 

Citizens, 478 U.S. at 565; Fischer, 214 F.3d at 1119 n.4. 

B. Reasonable Hourly Rate. 

A reasonable hourly rate is determined by looking to the “prevailing market rates in the 

relevant community” as well as the skill, experience, and reputation of the lawyer. Blum v. 

Stenson, 465 U.S. 886, 895 (1984); United States v. $28,000 in U.S. Currency, 802 F.3d 1100, 

1105 (9th Cir. 2015); Gonzalez v. City of Maywood, 729 F.3d 1196, 1205 (9th Cir. 2013). In

Van Skike v. Director, Office of Workers Compensation Programs, 557 F.3d 1041 (9th Cir. 

2009), the court observed: 

The Supreme Court has consistently held that reasonable fees “are to be calculated 

according to the prevailing market rates in the relevant community, regardless of whether 

plaintiff is represented by private or nonprofit counsel.” Blum v. Stenson, 465 U.S. 886, 

895, 104 S. Ct. 1541, 79 L. Ed. 2d 891 (1984). The burden is on the fee applicant himself 

“to produce satisfactory evidence” of the relevant market rate. Id. at 896 n.11, 104 S. Ct. 

1541. . . . 

The relevant community is generally defined as “the forum in which the district court 

sits.” Barjon v. Dalton, 132 F.3d 496, 500 (9th Cir. 1997). 

Van Skike v. Director, 557 F.3d at 1046. The prevailing market rate can also be shown through 

affidavit of the prevailing party’s attorneys or through testimony of other attorneys. Blum v. 

Stenson, 465 U.S. 886, 893-96 (1984). 

The party requesting the fees has the burden of producing “satisfactory evidence,” in 

addition to the affidavits of its counsel, the requested rates are in step with those “prevailing in 

the community for similar services by lawyers of reasonably comparable skill, experience and 

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6 – OPINION AND ORDER 

reputation.” Dang v. Cross, 422 F.3d 800, 814 (9th Cir. 2005) (quoting Blum, 465 U.S. at 895 

n.11). This district has formally recognized that the Oregon State Bar Economic Survey 

represents the prevailing market rates in this district (see Local Rule 54-3(a) “Practice Tip” (“As 

for the reasonable hourly rate, the Court uses the most recent Oregon State Bar Economic Survey 

(“OSB Survey”) as its initial benchmark.”); Roberts v. Interstate Distrib. Co., 242 F. Supp. 2d 

850, 857 (D. Or. 2002); Arnold v. Pfizer, Inc., 3:10-cv-01025-AC, 2015 WL 4603326, *1 (D. Or. 

July 29, 2015). If the rate requested exceeds the average rate reported in the OSB Survey, the 

burden is on the prevailing party to justify that higher rate. Copeland-Turner v. Wells Fargo 

Bank, N.A., No. 3:11-CV-37-HZ, 2012 WL 92957, at *2 (D. Or. Jan. 11, 2012). Even when such 

justification is present, the court usually limits the hourly rate to the 75th percentile of the OSB 

Survey. McElmurry v. U.S. Bank Nat’l Ass’n, 2008 WL 1925119, at *3 (D. Or. Apr. 30, 2008); 

Knowledge Learning Corp., 2011 WL 2133824, at *5. 

The 2012 OSB Survey indicates that hourly rates for Portland attorneys in practice 10-12 

years range from a median of $275 to a 95th percentile of $428. Applying a 2.0 percent annual 

increase of those rates for inflation results in a $291 median rate and a $454 95th percentile rate. 

Plaintiff seeks fees for the two lawyers, Tim L. Eblen and Michelle K. Freed, who represented 

plaintiff (ECF No. 60), for 126.2 hours of Eblen’s work at an hourly rate of $340, and 64.8 hours 

of Freed’s work at an hourly rate of $340.1

 Because plaintiff requests rates that exceed the in the 

OSB survey average rates applicable to her lawyers, she bears the burden to justify that higher 

rate. See Turner, 2012 WL 92957 at *2 (the prevailing party must explain why an attorney 

deserves an above-median rate for the work performed in a particular case). 

\ \ \ \ \ 

 

2 Plaintiff also requests compensation for 18.9 hours of paralegal work at an hourly rate 

of $115. Defendants do not object to this request.

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7 – OPINION AND ORDER 

Plaintiff offers two justifications for the higher rates she seeks. First, she points to 

attorney fee awards to her lawyers received in another case filed in this district and in one case 

filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court, but fees awards received in other cases do not 

necessarily reflect the appropriate hourly rate because those cases may involve substantive and 

procedural facts as well as legal issues more or less complex than those present here. See, e.g., 

Knowledge Learning Corp. v. National Union Fire Ins. Co. of Pittsburg, PA, Case No. 10-cv188-ST, 2011 WL 2133824, at *6 (April 19, 2011) (observing that reliance on other cases 

approving hourly rates similar to those requested is misplaced where no details are provided to 

“meaningfully compare” the cited cases to the case at hand). Here, plaintiff’s attorneys rely only 

on two other cases and they provide no description of either case that allows this court to 

evaluate the basis for the hourly rate determinations in those other cases. Furthermore, the 

instant case was not complex legally or factually to warrant enhanced hourly rates greater than 

the applicable OSB Survey rates. 

Second, plaintiff relies on expert testimony which, in turn, relies in part on the Morones 

Survey of Commercial Litigation Fees (2014 ed.). See, e.g., Declaration of David Sugarman, 

ECF No. 64, at 2 (“I re-reviewed the Oregon State Bar Economics Survey (2012) (‘OSB Survey’) 

and the Morones Survey of Commercial Litigation Fees (2014 Update) (‘Morones Survey’).”). The 

Morones Survey is a report conceived and developed by two Portland commercial litigation 

lawyers for the narrow purpose of supporting their expert testimony submitted in connection 

with attorney-fee motions. The report itself contains statements that describe this purpose: 

[The attorneys] commissioned the survey for the purpose of developing accurate market 

data to support their frequent expert testimony in attorney fee disputes. They previously 

suffered from a lack of complete, empirical market data to use in fee disputes. 

They defined their relevant market as each law firm located in the metro Portland area 

with more than five attorneys specializing in commercial litigation. They defined 

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8 – OPINION AND ORDER 

“specializing” as spending more than 50% of their time in the practice of commercial 

litigation. 

See, e.g., Morones Survey of Commercial Litigation Fees (2010 ed.), submitted as an exhibit in 

Securities and Exchange Commission v. Sunwest Management, Inc., Case No. 6:09-cv-06056-

HO, ECF No. 1764-2, Page ID No. 32954. 

The Morones Survey does not meet the Ninth Circuit’s or this district’s requirements to 

serve as evidence of prevailing market rates. First, as described in its “Purpose” statement, the 

Morones Survey is based on data and reflects hourly rates that reflect a narrow subset of the 

relevant community. Second, the Morones survey lacks reliability. Its designer did not 

administer it to achieve a statistically representative cross-section of the forum within which this 

court sits. Instead, the designer sought information from only certain commercial litigation 

practitioners, located in a small geographic area of the forum, and whose law firms and practice 

areas meet specific and narrow criteria. The Morones Survey’s definitions further limit its 

relevance because they do not promote the collection of objective data pertaining to prevailing 

market rates. 

Other judges in this district have rejected the Morones Survey as a standard for assessing 

attorney fee petitions. In Miller v. Equifax Information Services, LLC, Case No. 3:11-CV01231-BR, 2014 WL 2178257 (D. Or. May 23, 2014), Judge Brown observed: 

Plaintiff requests fees for 747.8 hours of work on this matter performed by four attorneys: 

Michael Baxter, Justin Baxter, Kachelle Baxter, and Maureen Leonard. This Court uses 

the most recent Oregon State Bar Economic Survey published in 2012 (OSB Survey) as 

its benchmark to determine the reasonable hourly rate. Attorneys may argue for higher 

rates based on inflation, specialty, or any number of other factors. Miller contends the 

Court should consider the 2012 Morones Survey of Commercial Litigation Fees when 

determining the reasonableness of her attorneys’ requested hourly rates. This district 

court, however, recently declined to consider the Morones Survey and instead relied on 

the OSB Survey. See Precision Seed Cleaners v. Country Mut. Ins. Co., No. 10-cv01023-HZ, 2013 WL 5524689, at *11 (D. Or. Oct. 1, 2013). For those same reasons, the 

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9 – OPINION AND ORDER 

Court similarly declines to consider the Morones Survey in this case and relies on the 

OSB Survey to determine the reasonableness of the hourly rates requested by Miller. 

Id. at *2. See also Precision Seed Cleaners v. Country Mutual Insurance Company, 976 F. Supp. 

2d 1228, 1246 (D. Or. 2013) (“And, while Markowitz cites the 2012 Morones Survey of 

Commercial Litigation Fees in support of his position that Fanning’s requested rate is within the 

range of prevailing market rates, this Court, as noted above, uses the OSB Economic Survey as a 

benchmark and the rates there are below Fanning’s requested rate.”). This court agrees with 

Judges Brown and Hernandez that the Morones Survey does not contain appropriate standards 

for determining hourly rates for attorney fee petitions in this district. 

In determining the appropriate billing rate the court also considers an attorney’s 

experience at the time he or she performed the work. Precision Seed Cleaners v. Country Mut. 

Ins. Co., 976 F. Supp. 2d 1228, 1246 (D. Or. 2013). Eblen was admitted to the Oregon State Bar 

in 2005 and has specialized in the fields of debtor-creditor and consumer law for the past 10 

years. Freed was admitted to the Oregon State Bar in 2004, and her legal career has focused 

exclusively on debtor-creditor and consumer law. Both Freed and Eblen have been asked to 

speak at Continuing Legal Education seminars on debtor-creditor issues, and regularly present on 

debt settlement options to the public. Freed is listed as attorney in six FDCPA cases in this 

court, and one case in the Western District of Washington; Eblen is listed as an attorney in five 

FDCPA cases filed in those courts. Both attorneys produced evidence that they are wellrespected in the community and known for their work on debtor-creditor matters. In the case 

from this district, referenced above, in which they received a fee award, Judge Aiken awarded 

them hourly rates of $340 in 2015. Decl. Michelle K. Freed, ¶ 3. 

A lodestar rate above the OSB Survey median is appropriate only when the particular 

case being litigated benefitted from or required specialized experience. Knowledge Learning 

Case 3:15-cv-00122-AC Document 79 Filed 07/14/16 Page 9 of 16
10 – OPINION AND ORDER 

Corp., 2011 WL 2133824, at *5. Plaintiff’s attorneys have significant experience in litigating 

debt-collection actions against consumers, but this particular case did not present complex legal 

or factual issues. From the outset of defendants’ attempted to collected the credit card debt, 

plaintiff conceded she owed the debt originally incurred on the credit card. Thus, in this lawsuit 

the parties did not litigate, as occurs in many of these cases, that plaintiff actually owed the 

original debt defendants sought to collect. No issue arose that either party breached some term 

or condition of the underlying contract for credit which either prevented collection of the debt or 

accelerated its payment. Furthermore, the FDCPA is interpreted as a strict-liability statue, which 

reduced plaintiff’s burden to prove liability. And while plaintiff argues that the skill required to 

prosecute this case warrants an upward departure from the median rate, she does not identify 

complicating features of law or fact that required unusual skill or experience. In sum, this case 

turned on the straightforward dispute over the manner in which defendants attempted to collect 

the debt she owed. Finally, while plaintiff’s attorneys initially maintained that plaintiff’s noneconomic damages justified a mid-range six-figure damages award, plaintiff settled her lawsuit 

for a significantly smaller figure. For these reasons, the specialized experience of plaintiff’s 

counsel and the skill required to prosecute this case does not justify a lodestar rate above the 

OSB Survey median. Knowledge Learning Corp., 2011 WL 2133824, at *5. 

Plaintiff argues that defendants’ conduct caused unreasonable delay and justifies an 

above-median award, but the record in this case does not support this contention. As evidence of 

dilatory conduct, plaintiff notes that neither defendant made an attempt at settlement for nine 

months after plaintiff filed her complaint; neither defendant engaged in discovery until late 2015; 

defendant moved to dismiss the case and then withdrew its motion without explanation; did not 

depose plaintiff until one week before the settlement conference; and did not make or respond to 

Case 3:15-cv-00122-AC Document 79 Filed 07/14/16 Page 10 of 16
11 – OPINION AND ORDER 

settlement offers outside of the February 2016 settlement conference. Defendants respond that 

they delayed engaging in discovery in an attempt to keep costs low for both parties, in hopes that 

a mediator would make plaintiff’s position more reasonable.2 Taking plaintiff’s deposition one 

week before the settlement conference is consistent with this explanation. Regarding settlement 

efforts, that defendants did not initiate settlement discussions prior to the settlement conference 

is not a fact that, by itself, warrants an above-median award of attorney fees. Plaintiff has not 

submitted evidence that defendants unreasonably rebuffed her settlement overtures, refused to 

participate in mediation or a settlement conference, or engaged in discovery conduct that 

unnecessarily increased the cost of litigating this case. On this record, the defendants’ litigation 

conduct does not support a departure from the median rate. 

Plaintiff also argues that the fee award should compensate plaintiff’s counsel for 

accepting this case on a contingency fee basis because in doing so, counsel undertook a risk of 

receiving no compensation. Here, the court does not find that the contingent fee arrangement 

justifies an upward adjustment from the presumptive hourly rate. While plaintiff’s counsel 

assumed some risk by accepting this case on a contingency-fee basis, the strict liability nature of 

the FDCPA statue significantly reduced that risk. Furthermore, the Supreme Court in City of 

Burlington v. Dague rejected the contention that an attorney fee award to attorneys retained on a 

contingency fee basis must go beyond the lodestar, because “an enhancement for contingency 

would likely duplicate in substantial part factors already subsumed in the lodestar.” 505 U.S. 

557, 562 (1992). Accordingly, the contingency fee agreement between plaintiff and her counsel 

does not justify an upward adjustment from the presumptive hourly rate.

 

2 Plaintiff’s complaint and initial offers of settlement maintained a six-figure valuation of 

non-economic damages; this case settled for a fraction of plaintiff’s initial demand. 

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12 – OPINION AND ORDER 

In sum, nothing about the facts or legal issues in this case set it apart from ordinary 

FDCPA cases. For these reasons, plaintiff has not met her burden to justify a departure from the 

presumptive lodestar rate of $291. See Prison Legal News v. Umatilla Cty., No. 2:12-CV-01101-

SU, 2013 WL 2156471, at *4 (D. Or. May 16, 2013) (applying median rate based on years 

practicing law set out in most recent OSB Survey absent good reason to apply a different rate); 

see also Bark v. Northrop, 300 F.R.D. 486, 493 (D. Or. 2014) (same). Therefore, the court 

awards an hourly rate of $291 per hour to both Freed and Eblen for hours reasonably expended. 

C. Hours Reasonably Expended 

Plaintiff asks the court to award fees for 126.2 hours expended by Eblen and 64.8 hours 

by Freed. A party seeking attorney fees bears the burden to demonstrate that the number of 

hours spent by counsel were “reasonably necessary” to the litigation and that her attorneys made 

“a good faith effort to exclude from [the] fee request hours that are excessive, redundant, or 

otherwise unnecessary.” Hensley, 461 U.S. at 434. The court finds counsel’s expenditures to be 

reasonable, with the following exceptions. 

 First, plaintiff’s attorneys’ erroneous pleading of intradistrict venue caused unnecessary 

motion practice and, thus, caused them to expend almost six hours of attorney time 

unnecessarily. Plaintiff’s attorneys acknowledged they wrongly pleaded venue. (See ECF No. 

18, p. 3, ¶ 9.) Local Rule 3-2 clearly explains how to determine in which division of this district 

a lawsuit is to be filed. Because plaintiff’s error pleading intradistrict venue created needless 

confusion and ultimately forced defendants to file a motion to dismiss, plaintiff should not 

recover any of the time spent on responding to defendants’ venue motion. Plaintiff’s attorneys’ 

hours thus are reduced by the time spent on this issue, 5.9 hours. (ECF No. 62-1, p. 3.) 

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13 – OPINION AND ORDER 

 Second, plaintiff seeks to recover for 2.9 hours Eblen spent reviewing and editing the fee 

ledger attached to his declaration. (ECF No. 62-1, p. 18.) This activity is vaguely described and 

not reasonably necessary to the litigation; accordingly, it is eliminated. Plaintiff also seeks to 

recover for .3 hours spent reviewing and choosing spoliation letter forms; this entry is too vague 

to allow the court to determine whether the task was reasonably necessary to this litigation. 

(ECF No. 62-1, p. 1.) Thus, this time is eliminated. 

 Third, plaintiff seeks to recover for 20.3 hours spent preparing settlement conference 

materials and conferring about settlement in this matter, including 5.8 hours spent with a graphic 

artist to prepare a visual presentation. (ECF No. 62-1, pp. 15-17.) The court finds this time 

expenditure unreasonable and reduces it by 5.8 hours. The court further reduces the hours by 3.8 

for activities too vaguely described. 

 Fourth, plaintiff seeks to recover for 12.9 hours’ time spent by her attorneys in 

preparation of a fee petition. (ECF No. 62-1, pp. 17-18.) This entry exceeds the time plaintiff's 

attorneys spent on preparing for the 30(b)(6) deposition of defendants’ representatives. Some of 

this time seems attributable to plaintiff’s attorneys’ decision to employ three attorneys as experts 

on the fee issue and the consequent time incurred to prepare a declaration for each. This is a 

simple case, as previously discussed, and employing three experts to support an attorney fee 

petition was unnecessary. Accordingly, the court finds unreasonable 12.9 hours to prepare the 

fee petition and reduces the time by one-third, to 8.6 hours. 

 Fifth, plaintiff seeks to recover 3.4 hours for attorney and paralegal time in reviewing and 

editing discovery requests. (ECF No. 62-1, p. 4.) Plaintiff’s records show time entries for 

multiple partners making edits to interrogatories and discovery requests in excess of 2 hours, 

after a paralegal made edits to the same documents. Id. Because these entries appear duplicative 

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14 – OPINION AND ORDER 

and because of plaintiff’s attorneys’ depth of experience in this type of case, the court finds these 

time expenditures to be excessive, and eliminates 1.5 hours spent by attorney Eblen on “final 

edits and additions to interrogatories, and Notice of Deposition” and “final review and signing of 

discovery request.” Id. 

 The court eliminates an additional 20.3 hours for the following tasks. First, 2.0 hours 

billed for travel time to plaintiff’s home in Salem because the purpose of and need for the trip is 

not sufficiently described. (ECF No. 62-1, p. 9.) Second, 2.0 hours billed for drafting the first 

amended complaint, a task that should have taken less time given the plaintiff’s attorneys’ 

FDCPA experience and because the amended complaint differed little from the original 

complaint. (ECF No. 62-1, p. 11.) Third, 4.6 hours for vaguely described time reviewing the 

case and reviewing documents. (ECF No. 62-1, pp. 1, 5, 16.) And fourth, 11.7 for vaguely 

described time spent in deposition preparation. (ECF No. 62-1, pp. 6-9.) 

 In sum, the court reduces plaintiff’s hours to a combined 146.2 hours reasonably 

expended, at an hourly rate of $291 for both attorneys Eblen and Freed. The court therefore 

awards $42,544.20 in attorney fees. 

The following hours of paralegal time are also eliminated because the same tasks are 

billed by partners: .7 hours making edits and finalizing formatting for documents and 

interrogatories, and .4 hours writing emails on May 5, 2015. (ECF No. 62-1, pp. 4-5.) The court 

therefore awards 17.8 hours in paralegal fees, for a total of $2,047. In total, the court awards 

$45,027.70. 

II. Plaintiff’s Bill of Costs. 

 Plaintiff seeks costs in the amount of $3,369.50 for filing fees, service fees, deposition 

costs, and copy costs. (ECF No. 60). Defendants do not object to these costs. 

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15 – OPINION AND ORDER 

A. Legal Standards 

 Costs generally are awarded to the prevailing party in a civil action as a matter of course 

unless the court directs otherwise. FED. R. CIV. P. 54(d). Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1920, the 

court may tax specific items as costs against a losing party under FED. R. CIV. P. 54(d)(1). 

Section 1920 provides: 

A judge or clerk of any court of the United States may tax as costs the following: 

 (1) Fees of the clerk and marshal; 

(2) Fees of the court reporter for all or any part of the stenographic 

transcript necessarily obtained for use in the case; 

(3) Fees and disbursements for printing and witnesses; 

(4) Fees for exemplification and copies of papers necessarily obtained for 

use in the case; 

(5) Docket fees under section 1923 of this title; 

(6) Compensation for court-appointed experts, compensation of 

interpreters, and salaries, fees, expenses, and costs of special interpretation 

services under § 1828 of this title. 

A bill of costs shall be filed in the case and, upon allowance, included in the 

judgment or decree. 

The court must limit an award of costs to those defined in 28 U.S.C. § 1920 unless otherwise 

provided for by statute. Grove v. Wells Fargo Fin. Ca., Inc., 606 F.3d 577, 579-80 (9th Cir. 

2010). 

B. Discussion 

 The court finds that plaintiff’s costs fall within the categories enumerated in Section 1920 

and are reasonable. Thus, they are awarded in full. 

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16 – OPINION AND ORDER 

Conclusion 

For the reasons discussed above, plaintiff’s motion is granted in part. Plaintiff is awarded 

$45,027.70 in attorney fees and $3,369.50 in costs. 

 IT IS SO ORDERED. 

 DATED this 14th day of July, 2016. 

 /s/ John V. Acosta_______________ 

 

 JOHN V. ACOSTA 

 United States Magistrate Judge 

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