Opinion ID: 1207601
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The District Court's Explanation of the Fee Award

Text: A district court acts within its discretion in awarding fees when the amount is reasonable and the court fully explains its reasoning in making the award. Typically, a district court begins it calculation of fees by multiplying the number of hours reasonably spent on the litigation by a reasonable hourly rate. Id. at 433, 103 S.Ct. 1933. The resulting number is frequently called the lodestar amount. City of Riverside v. Rivera, 477 U.S. 561, 568, 106 S.Ct. 2686, 91 L.Ed.2d 466 (1986). In determining the appropriate number of hours to be included in a lodestar calculation, the district court should exclude hours that are excessive, redundant, or otherwise unnecessary. Hensley, 461 U.S. at 434, 103 S.Ct. 1933. The party seeking the award should provide documentary evidence to the court concerning the number of hours spent, and how it determined the hourly rate(s) requested. Id. at 433, 103 S.Ct. 1933. Once the district court completes its analysis of the final lodestar amount, it must explain how it arrived at its determination with sufficient specificity to permit an appellate court to determine whether the district court abused its discretion in the way the analysis was undertaken. Chalmers v. Los Angeles, 796 F.2d 1205, 1211 (9th Cir.1986); see also Kerr v. Screen Extras Guild, Inc., 526 F.2d 67, 70 (9th Cir.1975) (Because the record before us is devoid of information as to the factors considered by the district court in its determination, a meaningful review is impossible. Therefore, the case is remanded....). Here, the district court considered the applicable case law and the arguments of both parties before concluding: The Court finds that, based on the support provided, Plaintiff's requested fees are excessive. The declarations of Plaintiff's counsel and [John] Burton[, a local attorney who testified regarding the prevailing rates,] do not establish that counsel deserve between $400 and $550 an hour. Also, the Court finds that the hours expended are not justified by the issues involved. But the Court finds that Plaintiff achieved substantial success in a difficult case obtaining the $20,000 settlement. With reductions to the hourly rate and the number of hours involved, the Court GRANTS Plaintiff's Motion and awards $200,000 in attorney's fees. The Court finds that $200,000 is reasonable in light of the degree of success, the overlapping issues involved, and the public interest served by prosecuting a difficult case until the very eve of trial. The district court provided no other explanation for the final number of hours allowed in its lodestar calculation, or how it arrived at an applicable hourly rate. The district court's failure to provide such an explanation makes meaningful review of its lodestar determinations impossible, and we have no choice but to remand the case to the district court to permit it to make the necessary calculations and provide the necessary explanations. See Tutor-Saliba, 452 F.3d at 1065; Chalmers, 796 F.2d at 1213.