Opinion ID: 6492886
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Bettencourt’s Attorney’s Fees Requests

Text: Bettencourt filed two requests for his own fees as appointed counsel. First, on October 29, 2009, Bettencourt requested excess attorney’s fees for the billing period from September 30, 2008 through July 31, 2009, in the amount of $19,188.00, representing 213.2 hours, billed at the statutory rate of $90.00 per hour. The trial judge certified the entire amount; administrative judge Richard Perkins (“administrative judge”) approved the lesser amount of $18,567.00, representing 206.3 hours, billed at the statutory rate of $90.00 per hour. The administrative judge crossed out entries on Bettencourt’s submitted time sheets indicating that he would not allow Bettencourt to bill attorney’s fees for making copies of documents, which is not legal work. This attorney’s fee request is not the subject of the instant appeal. Second, on March 17, 2010 (after the trial), Bettencourt submitted his Amended Request for Attorney’s Fees to the circuit court, for the billing period covering August 1, 2009 through January 28, 2010, requesting $38,529.00 in excess attorney’s fees for 428.1 hours of work, in addition to the previously approved $18,567.00 for 206.3 hours of work. The trial judge certified the total amount of fees requested on March 22, 2010. The administrative judge approved only $26,640.00 of Bettencourt’s requested attorney’s fees on June 9, 2010, which amounts to a cut of $11,889 in fees. No notations were made as to whether the administrative judge reduced the fees by some percentage, reduced the fee rate for all hours claimed, or reduced the number of hours of work billed. Viewed as a percentage, the reduction is an approximate 31% cut in the amount of fees requested. Viewed as a reduction to the hourly rate, 428.1 hours of work at approximately $62 per hour, rather than at the statutory maximum rate of $90 an hour, were approved. Viewed in terms of hours, 296 hours at the statutory rate of $90, rather than 428.1 hours at the statutory rate, were approved. In addition to making no notations on Bet-tencourt’s time worksheets as to which billed items he disallowed, the administrative judge provided no written explanation for the reduction beyond what was documented by his clerk in an internal court memorandum, which was eventually appended to Betten-court's second fee request. According to the internal memorandum, dated June 9, 2010, addressed to the Fiscal Office from the 8th Division Law Clerk, the reason for the reduction in fees was as follows: The reason that the request for attorney fee totals do not match the hourly worksheet totals is that [the administrative judge] summarily reduced the amount. Because the attorney requested an amount of compensation over the $6,000 statutory limit, [the administrative judge] was entitled per the Crim. Admin. Order to summarily reduce the fees granted by the court to a reasonable amount. Therefore, there are no changes that I can make to the hourly worksheet totals, since the changes were summarily made by [the administrative judge] based on his discretion and were not based on particular inaccuracies or errors in the hourly worksheets. Criminal Administrative Order (“CAO”) No. 1.1, part II reads: “Court-appointed counsel are entitled to reasonable compensation for necessary fees [HRS § 802-5]. The Court determines the amount of reasonable compensation based upon statutory limits. If a request appears unreasonable, the court may summarily reduce or deny it.” Likewise, CAO No. 1.1, Pari II, 4 “Payment Exceeding Maximum Fees” reads, in pertinent part: “Where the presiding judge ... determines that the excess payment is not necessary to provide fair compensation, the amount may be summarily reduced.” (emphasis in original). The 8th division law clerk’s memorandum referred to Criminal Administrative Order (“C.A.O.”) 1.1, which read in pertinent part: