Opinion ID: 2314184
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Exclusion of Unrelated, Excessive and Unproductive Time

Text: Besides ignoring the contemporaneousness and allocation requirements, the plaintiffs have failed to make a good faith effort to exclude hours spent on unrelated matters or hours that were duplicative or otherwise unproductive. For example, the time for which they seek compensation includes hours spent prosecuting a different suit by Linda Bailey in the State court. (Tr. 8/18/89 at 55-56). It also includes hours spent in lobbying the Rhode Island General Assembly for legislation desired by the Lodge. (Tr. 8/18/89 at 59-60). Furthermore, as already noted, it includes an indeterminate number of hours devoted to other Lodge business having nothing to do with this case. (Tr. 8/18/89 at 62). The amount requested by the plaintiffs also encompasses hours spent on the numerous requests for continuances and extensions of time that they made during the course of this litigation and on a mandamus petition that they filed with the Court of Appeals in August of 1988 unsuccessfully challenging this Court's denial of the last in a series of requests to postpone the trial. In addition, the plaintiffs' have made no attempt to eliminate duplicative hours logged in those instances where two or more attorneys attended the same conferences, sat in on the same depositions or other proceedings and reviewed the same documents. The net result is that the fee claimed has been grossly inflated. One measure of the extent of that inflation is the disproportion between the total time the plaintiffs' attorneys say they spent on this case and what one would expect was reasonably required. Thus, compensation is sought for more than 4,000 billable hours which represent more than two full years of a lawyer's billable time. However, despite the sweeping allegations contained in the complaint, the plaintiffs' claims were based on a relatively simple sequence of events occurring over a limited period of time. It is inconceivable that even the most vigorous advocacy of those claims required anywhere near the number of hours for which the plaintiffs seek recovery.