Opinion ID: 2637250
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Evidence relating to the attorney fees issue.

Text: ¶ 16 Neither party presented an independent witness to testify on the appropriate hourly rate to be charged for attorney fees. Spencer's attorney testified that he had been practicing law for seventeen years and that his rates of $180.00 per hour for out of court time and $250.00 per hour for court appearances were appropriate, reasonable and consistent with the rates of other attorneys in the Seminole area. [23] OG & E countered the proposed hourly rate by supplying a copy of an Oklahoma Bar Association Survey indicating that in 2002 metro area attorneys were charging $156.72 per hour while non-metro attorneys were charging $138.55. Interestingly enough, the OG & E attorney testified that he did not know what he billed per hour. [24] Spencer's attorney also testified that he had put 47.68 hours into prosecuting the cause. The number of hours is reasonable when considered with OG & E's admission that it had in excess of 125 hours of attorney time invested in the cause. [25] ¶ 17 Considering Spencer's proposed in court and out of court hourly rates applied to the reconstructed billing statement, the amount sought as attorney fees is $8,775.37. If only the lower of the two hourly rates presented by Spencer is applied to all time expended, the attorney fee award would be $8,582.40. Applying OG & E's proposed hourly rate, the award would be $6,606.64. When the rates as proposed by Spencer are accepted and applied to the draft statement, which OG & E insists is the more accurate estimation of the time involved in the case, the award would be $5,325.37. Finally, if the $840.00 billed for time expended on a motion to vacate judgment entered when the attorney failed to appear at the disposition docket is subtracted from this total, the proposed attorney fees would be reduced to $4,487.37. ¶ 18 None of the proposed amounts, ranging from almost $9,000.00 to a low of approximately $4,500.00, bears any rational relationship to the trial court's award of $2,500.00. When divided by the hours Spencer had in the case, the amount awarded is less than $53.00 per hour for attorney time, one-third of the hourly rate proposed for a rural attorney in the Tulsa area by OG & E, and a rate considered reasonable by this Court almost thirty years ago. [26] The award of $2,500.00 for approximately 48 hours of attorney time is not supported by reason or the evidence. ¶ 19 b. Under the facts and evidence presented, $7,104.50 in attorney fees should be awarded to the customer.