Court Opinion

ID: 9430689
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:30:21.069556+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:25.804374
License: Public Domain

Justice Blackmun,
.with whom Justice Marshall joins, and with whom Justice Brennan joins as to Part II, concurring in part and dissenting in part.
HH
I dissent from the piecemeal adjudication of the issues in this case. I would set the entire case, and not just a part of *569it, for reargument next Term. This rush to judgment on certain issues will serve only to confuse the federal courts until the entire case is decided. But the Court insists on covering the merits in part, and so I turn to them.
I — I HH
I join only Parts I and II ox the Court s opinion. In Part III, the Court purports to follow Blum v. Stenson, 465 U. S. 886 (1984), in which we held that an adjustment for quality was available “in the rare case where the fee applicant offers specific evidence to show that the quality of service rendered was superior to that one reasonably should expect in light of the hourly rates charged and that the success was ‘exceptional.’” Id., at 899, citing Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U. S. 424, 435 (1983). The Court today, however, improperly heightens the showing required to the point where it may be virtually impossible for a plaintiff to meet. Compare Blum, supra, at 899, with ante, at 567-568.
Although the District Court’s decision was issued before Blum, its quality adjustment in Phase V was in full accord with the standards subsequently laid down in Blum. Compare 581 F. Supp. 1412, 1431 (ED Pa. 1984), with 465 U. S., at 899. The proper standard of review of an attorney’s fee award is abuse of discretion. Evans v. Jeff D., 475 U. S. 717, 742-743 (1986); Blum, supra, at 896. I do not think the District Court abused its discretion in multiplying by two the lodestar for Phase V in order to adjust for quality. If the majority applied the proper, deferential standard of review on the quality issue rather than substituting its judgment for that of the District Court, see ante, at 566-567, it may have reached the same result as I do.