Opinion ID: 749836
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Law Clerk Costs

Text: 50 On appeal, Barjon and Duran argue that the district court improperly ignored their request for law clerk costs as part of attorney's fees. Unfortunately, the district court never even addresses the issue in its order. 51 The Secretary argues that this issue was never raised below and cannot be raised for the first time on appeal. As a general rule, an appellate court will not hear an issue raised for the first time on appeal. Whittaker Corp. v. Execuair Corp., 953 F.2d 510, 515 (9th Cir.1992). However, where the issue is purely one of law and either does not depend on the factual record developed below, or the pertinent record has been fully developed, the court can exercise its discretion and review the issue on appeal. A-1 Ambulance Service, Inc. v. County of Monterey, 90 F.3d 333, 339 (9th Cir.1996) (quoting Bolker v. C.I.R., 760 F.2d 1039, 1042 (9th Cir.1985)). Since the pertinent record has been fully developed on this issue, we exercise our discretion to adjudicate this issue on appeal. See id. We find that the record supports an award of law clerk costs. 52 First, regulations clearly allow for fees, not only for attorneys, but for law clerks as well. See 29 C.F.R. § 1614.501(e)(iii). Furthermore, the fee requested here is reasonable. The time records of Wallace's law clerk indicate a total of 60.50 hours worked and an hourly rate of $90. Nonetheless, Wallace requests compensation for only 3.6 hours worked at an hourly rate of $25, presumably to account for her law clerk's lack of experience and expertise. 53 The 3.6 hours were spent on several tasks, including researching, photocopying, filing, and various conferences. The Secretary presents no evidence to refute that such work was reasonable. 54 Moreover, there is precedent to support a $25 hourly rate. See, e.g., Suzuki v. Yuen, 678 F.2d 761 (9th Cir.1982). In fact, the Secretary's own declarations evidence much higher rates for law clerks-between $40 and $75 per hour in the Sacramento area. 55 In short, the amount requested for law clerk costs in this case is justified by the evidence in the record. Therefore, we reverse and instruct the district court to enter an amended judgment awarding Appellants $90 in law clerk costs. 56 Appellants' request for attorney's fees for this appeal is denied. 5 57 No costs allowed. 58 AFFIRMED-IN-PART and REVERSED-IN-PART.