Opinion ID: 418106
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Failure to Consider Delay in Payment

Text: 29 The district court awarded the plaintiffs historical rates, reflecting the reasonable fee at the time the work was performed, apparently without any enhancement for delay in payment. Such delay obviously dilutes the eventual award and may convert an otherwise reasonable fee into an unreasonably low one. As a result, district courts should take into account inflation and interest, perhaps by adjusting the contingency factor to reflect delay, not just contingency, or perhaps by compensating at current, not historical, rates. See Copeland v. Marshall, 641 F.2d 880, 893 (D.C.Cir.1980) (en banc); Northcross v. Board of Education, 611 F.2d 624, 640 (6th Cir.1979), cert. denied, 447 U.S. 911, 100 S.Ct. 3000, 64 L.Ed.2d 862 (1980). We do not prescribe any set method for correcting for delay in payment, but some form of correction must be undertaken. The district court should do so on remand. If this requires a reevaluation of the historical hourly rates, the district court is free to approach the delay problem in that manner. See Morgado v. Birmingham-Jefferson County Civil Defense Corps, 706 F.2d 1184 (11th Cir.1983).