Opinion ID: 71300
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Reasonable Hours Expended

Text: 18 The second step requires a determination as to the number of reasonable hours expended by counsel. While exercising proper billing judgment, the party should have excluded those hours that would be unreasonable to bill a client or opposing counsel without reference to skill, reputation or experience. Norman, 836 F.2d at 1301. The court will therefore deduct unnecessary or redundant hours and time spent upon discrete and unsuccessful claims from the calculations. Id. at 1301-02. 19 Because reducing the hours claimed requires the court's precision, the law in this circuit commands that both the proof of the hours spent in litigation and any corresponding objections posed be voiced with a similar exactitude. Norman, 836 F.2d at 1301. Plaintiffs have enumerated 519.95 hours spent by Mr. Howe and 715.5 hours spent by Mr. Weathersby. Defendants have specific objections to an estimated 358.4 of the 1,262.6 hours requested. Although Plaintiff asserts that ninety percent of the time spent by counsel was directed toward Plaintiff's successful claim against DeKalb County and that no duplication of efforts of counsel occurred, this court cannot agree with that assessment. 20 In searching for a principled way to make reductions for unsuccessful claims and redundant work, the court declines to adopt the approach of subtracting five or ten percent from the sum requested, as advocated by Plaintiffs. Rather, finding the bulk of Defendant's specific objections and arguments to the amounts claimed to be convincing, the court adopts Defendant's calculations of reasonable hours as modified below. 3 Consequently, the court's calculations, which arrive at 942 reasonable hours of work, should provide a more generous return for Plaintiff's efforts. 21 i) Unsuccessful Claims 4 22 Following the trial, the court concluded that Plaintiff's own testimony contradicted objective evidence concerning many of his injuries; the court also voiced reservations about the credibility of Plaintiff's treating psychologist and expert on post traumatic stress disorder. Thus, the compensatory damages of $500 awarded to Plaintiff were based largely upon the injury, pain and suffering from Officer Patrick's kick to Plaintiff's groin. Consequently, the court agrees that hours spent on other aspects of Plaintiff's damage claims should be deducted from the lodestar where possible. 23 Because Plaintiff did not prevail on the malicious prosecution issue, the time that Mr. Howe included for researching and preparing for summary judgment on this issue should be excluded. Similarly, the entries that include activities in pursuit of Plaintiff's First Amendment claims must also be deducted. The court estimates that 6.25 hours claimed by Mr. Howe were dedicated to these unsuccessful First Amendment claims. In regard to claims based upon DeKalb County's failure to train its officers, the court estimates that counsel has improperly included 33.8 hours, nine of which were attributable to Mr. Howe. 24 ii) Redundant and Unnecessary Billing: 25 Defendant has highlighted 86.90 hours claimed that reveal redundant billing for overlapping efforts in deposing witnesses and parties by the two attorneys. Of these hours, 19.7 hours have already been struck because counsel had spent the time on unsuccessful damages claims. Plaintiff has asserted that only one attorney prepared and conducted depositions of parties and witnesses, while both attorneys attended all of the depositions. Because a comparison of the two sets of time entries largely attests to this explanation, the court has subtracted half of each attorney's hours spent for mere attendance of depositions. This amounts to a reduction of 16.25 hours for Mr. Howe, and 12 hours for Mr. Weathersby. The court does not find the remaining 10.7 hours calculated by Defendants to be redundant. 26 In addition, Defendant has raised issue with the myriad of telephone conferences for which Plaintiff has requested fees. The court agrees with this objection and is therefore including a reduction of 35 hours split between the two attorneys equally. Similarly, the court has adopted the 3.25 reduction in hours for counsel's requests and reviews of leave of absences, the 5.55 reduction in hours for non-legal services, and a reduction of 6.55 hours for miscellaneous charges that Plaintiff admitted should not be included in its request. The court is therefore deducting these excessive hours in the amount of 1.25 hours from Mr. Howe's time and 14.1 hours from Mr. Weathersby's time.