Opinion ID: 790169
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: For the Kind and Quality of Services Furnished

Text: 82 The DOE argues that because section 1415(i)(3)(C) limits rates for calculating attorneys' fees to those for the kind and quality of services furnished, the relevant market for determining reasonable rates for representation in administrative proceedings is the market for representation at the administrative level. The DOE asserts that administrative proceedings are not legally complex, Appellant's Br. at 22, A.R. ex rel. R.V. v. N.Y. City Dep't of Educ., and that, as a matter of law, they involve legal assistance of a different kind and quality than is involved in representation in court proceedings, id. at 45. The DOE asserts that the district judges therefore erred in determining the reasonable hourly rates for administrative representation by relying on hourly rates for proceedings commenced in federal courts. 83 While any comparison of degrees of difficulty of administrative and judicial hearings may itself raise considerable difficulties, we conclude that we need not address that issue here. The district court, in determining attorneys' fees for the administrative proceedings, relied substantially on hourly rates for representation in administrative proceedings. Cf. I.B., 336 F.3d at 81 (declining to decide whether hourly rates for representation in IDEA administrative hearings must be decided on the basis of what other counsel charge `at Impartial Hearings' because the district court's fee award was already based on such information). Two of the affidavits that were submitted by the LSC plaintiffs in support of their motions for attorneys' fees describe lawyers' hourly rates in the Southern District of New York for administrative representation. As we have noted, both district judges relied on the court's previous decision in Mr. X, which involved attorneys' fees for IDEA administrative hearings. See S.W., 257 F.Supp.2d at 604 (citing Mr. X, 20 F.Supp.2d at 563-64); M.S., 2002 WL 31556385, at , 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22220, at  (same). And in S.W., the district court also relied on M.S., which, of course, also deals with fees in administrative hearings. S.W., 257 F.Supp.2d at 604. Whether or not it would have been an abuse of discretion for either judge to rely solely on the level of attorneys' fees prevailing in judicially litigated matters, they did not do so here.