Opinion ID: 618982
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Laffey Matrix

Text: The district court also relied on the Laffey Matrix, even though it too had not been referenced by either party. The Laffey Matrix is a chart of hourly rates for attorneys and paralegals in the Washington, D.C. area that was prepared by the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia to be used in feeshifting cases. See Warfield v. City of Chicago, 733 F.Supp.2d 950, 960 n. 11 (N.D.Ill.2010); Dep't of Justice, Laffey Matrix2003-2012, http://www.justice. gov/usao/dc/divisions/civil_Laffey_Matrix_ 2003-2012.pdf. The district court did not explicitly take judicial notice of the Matrix, though it could have as a document in the public domain. The district court stated that the Matrix suggests an hourly rate no greater than $475 for an attorney with Rossiello's experience in the years 2010-2011. The Matrix in fact indicates a rate of exactly $475 for attorneys with Rossiello's experience, but the court may have adjusted this figure downward based on its reliance on a district court case that noted lower billing rates in Chicago than in the D.C. market. In the twenty years since the creation of the Laffey Matrix, we have never addressed this measure. No circuit outside the D.C. Circuit has formally adopted the Laffey Matrix, and few have even commented on it. While some circuits have applied the Laffey Matrix, see, e.g., Interfaith Cmty. Org. v. Honeywell Int'l, Inc., 426 F.3d 694, 708-10 (3d Cir.2005), other circuits have expressed concerns about the Matrix's utility outside its circuit of origin, see, e.g., Prison Legal News v. Schwarzenegger, 608 F.3d 446, 454 (9th Cir.2010) ([J]ust because the Laffey matrix has been accepted in the District of Columbia does not mean that it is a sound basis for determining rates elsewhere. . . .); Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co. v. Holiday, 591 F.3d 219, 229 (4th Cir.2009). District courts in this Circuit have occasionally considered the Laffey Matrix when considering the reasonableness of hourly rates for fee awards. See Hadnott v. City of Chicago, No. 07 C 6754, 2010 WL 1499473, at  (N.D.Ill. Apr. 12, 2010) (noting that numerous judges in this district have considered the Laffey Matrix as one factor). The district courts that have considered the Laffey Matrix have viewed it with differing levels of praise and skepticism. Compare Perry v. City of Gary, Ind., No. 2:08-CV-280 JVB, 2011 WL 3444007, at  (N.D.Ind. Aug. 8, 2011) (finding the Matrix to be unpersuasive), and Thompson v. City of Chicago, No. 07 C 1130, 2011 WL 2923694, at  (N.D.Ill. July 18, 2011) (afford[ing] little weight to the Matrix), with Berg v. Culhane, No. 9 C 5803, 2011 WL 589631, at  (N.D.Ill. Feb. 10, 2011) (finding the Matrix to constitute satisfactory evidence). A recent decision highlighted these divergent opinions and then rejected the assertion that the Laffey Matrix is a well-established neutral source that has been widely accepted by federal courts. Soleau v. Ill. Dep't of Transp., No. 09 C 3582, 2011 WL 2415008, at  (N.D.Ill. June 11, 2011). The court in Soleau acknowledged that the Laffey Matrix may be one factor in a rate inquiry but saw no reason to disregard the longstanding rule that looks first to the attorney's actual rates, then to the rates charged by comparable attorneys in the same geographic area. Id. We have not come across any other opinion from the Northern District of Illinois in which the court relied on the Laffey Matrix when it was not raised by a party. The Laffey Matrix is not without its critics, and plaintiff should have had the opportunity to contest its value in general and as applied to him. Even the D.C. Circuit has referred to the Matrix as crude and has recommended that plaintiffs provide affidavits, surveys, and past fee awards to enable the district court to refine the Matrix for the particular attorney. See Covington v. District of Columbia, 57 F.3d 1101, 1109 (D.C.Cir.1995). Additionally, plaintiff might have chosen to contest whether the district court should depart upward or downward from the rates on the Matrix. In this case, the district court relied on Elusta v. City of Chicago, 760 F.Supp.2d 792, 798 (N.D.Ill. 2010), for the conclusion that the Matrix rates, based on the D.C. market, should be adjusted downward for the lower cost of living in Chicago. But the Elusta court provided only minimal support for this assertion, merely comparing the Matrix rates to the rates in cases submitted by plaintiff and ultimately declining to use the Laffey Matrix. Id. Moreover, another decision in the district suggested that the high cost of living in Chicago necessitates an upward adjustment to the Matrix. See Schultz v. City of Burbank, No. 06 C 5646, 2007 WL 1099479, at  (N.D.Ill. Apr. 10, 2007). Here, plaintiff presented substantial evidence to support the requested fee award. If the district court found this evidence to be unpersuasive and therefore intended to rely on an independent basis for the hourly rate, then the district court should have given the parties an opportunity to respond. The parties had no notice that they should address the CPI or the Laffey Matrix in their briefing, and the case law within this Circuit would not have put them on constructive notice. Even when relying on these objective measures, the district court still exercised discretion in determining how to apply them, ultimately arriving a rate lower than those proposed by the CPI and the Laffey Matrix. The district court did not err simply by using the CPI and the Laffey Matrix to determine a reasonable hourly rate, but we hold that the court did err by relying on these measures without giving plaintiff an opportunity to respond. We instruct the district court, on remand, to give the parties an opportunity to comment on whether and how these two measures should be used to determine Rossiello's reasonable hourly rate.