Opinion ID: 387362
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Result When Past Precedents Applied to Copeland

Text: 226 In any developing area of the law such as this, courts setting forth general principles must attempt to design them to produce just results in various fact situations to which they will logically apply in the future. The specific situations which arise in future cases will sometimes bring to light deficiencies in the general rules laid down in the past, and will thus require greater elaboration or modification of the standards. The present case illustrates how a mechanical application of the hourly rate times hours formula, which appeared advisable as a general rule in past cases, can actually lead to unreasonable fees entirely out of line with what would happen in private litigation. 8 227 The litigation effort in this case concerned a claim of sex discrimination brought by approximately twenty-four females employed in branches of the Directorate of Data Automation in the Department of Labor. The extensive discovery and numerous pretrial motions in the case were directed at the issue whether the Department of Labor had discriminated in the past against the plaintiff class in assignments, training, performance evaluations, promotions, and working conditions. In compensation for the effects of discrimination found in this case, the Department of Labor paid a sum total of $31,345 in back pay for thirteen of the plaintiffs. In contrast, the legal fee requested by plaintiffs' attorneys was $206,000, and the amount awarded by the district court was $160,000. Plaintiffs' attorneys spent 3,602 hours on the case. 228 Whether this gross disproportion between the monetary stake of plaintiffs' claim and the cost of litigating that claim is justified by the amount of equitable relief awarded, as the majority apparently believes, does not resolve the problem presented by these facts. It is true that some of the plaintiffs received promotions and prospective future promotions, and that the Department agreed to adopt an affirmative action plan for female employees in positions requiring knowledge of data processing. But the fact remains that this Title VII suit involved only twenty-four class members in a very limited sector of a government agency, and concerned acts of discrimination whose sum total monetary value over a several year period was $31,345; yet plaintiffs managed to throw such resources into the legal battle that they could claim a legal fee of $206,000 and receive from the district court a fee of $160,000. Even if the equitable relief here was worth five times the monetary award, the total amount of relief would never make a $160,000 fee appear reasonable in private litigation. When fees of this magnitude begin to appear in suits against the Government, it is time to ask some serious questions about the reasonableness of the attorney's fees judges are awarding. 229 This case illustrates the potential result when a large private firm, with high rates customarily charged to wealthy corporate clients, brings a suit against a Government defendant with an unlimited deep pocket, and then proceeds to engage in extensive discovery and numerous pretrial motions, while being assured from the outset that all hours spent on the case will be reimbursed at the firm's customary rate so long as its efforts are relevant to issues on which it ultimately prevails. It is of little use to quibble over whether the amount of equitable relief involved in this particular case can possibly justify the high fee, because the situation in this case foreshadows and points the way toward far greater potential abuses in the future, if the hourly rate times hours formula continues to be mechanically applied. 230 Though past cases in this area, including those on which we ourselves have sat, have not given specific attention to these potential abuses, it is clearly time to do so now. The reason perhaps why those earlier cases did not consider the great potential for abuse is that they did not involve the Government in Title VII litigation and did not anticipate the possible effect when the resources of a large private law firm are brought to bear against the Government in an employment discrimination suit. We have that case for the first time now. It illustrates how these suits can diverge drastically from the commonly known patterns of private litigation. 231