Opinion ID: 725286
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Services on appeal, prior to oral argument (Ragsdale II )

Text: 34 Plaintiffs claimed 500.4 hours, spent from December 30, 1985 to July 28, 1986. There were 210 entries by four attorneys (plus 9.5 hours by a fifth). The entries include work on inclusion of materials in the record, reading transcript, reviewing appellants' brief, preparation and revision of appellees' brief, review of amicus brief, review of Thornburgh v. American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists, 476 U.S. 747, decided June 11, 1986, and preparation of a supplemental brief concerning Thornburgh in response to this court's request. Judge Nordberg disallowed approximately 55 hours, for the most part because he considered some of the services duplicative and some product replaced by later revisions. State Defendants argue there should have been further reductions because three or four attorneys conferred on seven dates, three attorneys read the state brief, five attorneys made entries for drafting, reviewing, revising and cite checking appellees' brief, and four attorneys claimed 35 hours for work on the Thornburgh brief. Judge Nordberg found that except for the hours disallowed, the hours claimed were reasonable. State Defendants' comment on the number of attorneys who shared the work, and the amount of time involved, do not persuade us that there was clear error or an abuse of discretion. Division of responsibility among attorneys and conferencing among them may well be a reasonable course.