Opinion ID: 8312766
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Review of Documents

Text: Additionally, Defendant argues that Plaintiff should not recover for time that her counsel spent reviewing the records released in this case. Defendant argues that reviewing disclosed records is a post-relief activity, separate from the litigation. Def.'s Mot., ECF No. 27, 20. But, the Court finds that, in these circumstances, Plaintiff's counsel reviewed the disclosed documents as part of the litigation, not as a post-relief activity. District courts within this Circuit have resolved in various ways the issue of whether to allow attorneys' fees for the review of released documents. Some district courts have not allowed fees for time spent reviewing documents obtained through FOIA litigation. See e.g., Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington v. Dep't of Justice , 825 F.Supp.2d 226 , 231 (D.D.C. 2011) (explaining that reviewing documents released in a FOIA action is a post-relief activity for which fees should not be awarded). But, other district courts have allowed counsel to recover for this activity. See e.g., Elec.Privacy Info. Ctr. , 72 F.Supp.3d at 351 (While [plaintiff] did not subsequently challenge any of the [defendant's] redactions or seek further Court-ordered relief after the [defendant] finally produced the requested documents, it needed to review the documents before making those decisions.). Looking to the operative language in the FOIA fee-award statute, recovery is allowed for litigation costs. 5 U.S.C. 552(a)(4)(E)(i). Given the facts of this case, the Court concludes that reviewing released documents was a litigation cost deserving of compensation. Plaintiff's counsel did not simply review the documents at leisure after litigation had ended. Instead, Plaintiff's counsel reviewed the documents as they were released and acted pursuant to the information contained in those documents. For example, after reviewing an initial release of records, Plaintiff requested from Defendant more detailed bases for some of the redactions to the disclosed documents. See Dec. of Seth A. Watkins, EFC 24-1, 13 (requesting fees for emails with AUSA re ... plaintiff's request for more detailed bases for the (b)(5) redactions on NARA 0089, NARA 0099). Plaintiff's counsel also brought production issues, such as Defendant's failure to release certain types of documents, to the Court's attention. Joint Status Report, ECF No. 18, 10-11 (disputing the scope of Defendant's search because it did not identify certain documents responsive to Plaintiff's request). The Court concludes that because the released documents [were] being reviewed to evaluate the sufficiency of the release [and] the propriety of a specific withholding ..., such document review time is properly included in [the] FOIA attorney's fees award. Elec.Privacy Info. Ctr. , 80 F.Supp.3d at 159 . While the Court was never required to resolve disclosure issues through a formal order, Plaintiff's counsel needed to review the documents before they could know whether they would need to challenge any disclosures or redactions. Accordingly, the Court concludes that the review of disclosed records was a litigation cost for which Plaintiff can recover. See Elec.Privacy Info. Ctr. , 811 F.Supp.2d at 239-40 ([I]t would seem critical to the prosecution of a FOIA lawsuit for a plaintiff to review an agency's disclosure for sufficiency and proper withholding during the course of its FOIA litigation. The court thus awards fees related to the plaintiff's review of [defendant's] disclosures.).