Opinion ID: 3039829
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Deducted Hours

Text: [7] The district court disallowed 21.5 of counsel’s claimed hours as unreasonable, amounting to $3,225 at $150 per hour, and explained why. The time was spent on a motion to enforce the administrative decision before the defendants’ time to seek judicial review had elapsed, and plaintiff filed it in the wrong venue. The district court may not “uncritically” accept the number of hours claimed by the prevailing party, even if actually spent on the litigation,15 but must, in order to award fees based on them, find “that the time actually spent was reasonably necessary.”16 The district court’s reasons for disallowing this small portion of the time plaintiff’s attorney applied to the case were sufficient, and sufficiently explained. AFFIRMED.