The parties settled in May 2011. According to the terms of
the settlement, Plaintiff Spencer was awarded $6,000.00, and Plaintiffs Ziegler
and Lewis were each awarded $2,750.00. The settlement did not, however, address
the Plaintiffs’ costs and/or attorney’s fees.
In an action under the FLSA, “[t]he court . . . shall,
in addition to any judgment awarded to the plaintiff or plaintiffs, allow
reasonable attorney’s fee to be paid by the defendant, and costs of the
action.” 29 U.S.C. § 216(b). Payment of attorney’s fees and cost to
employees who prevail on FLSA claims is mandatory; however, the amount is
within the discretion of the court.
The first step in determining reasonable attorney’s
fees is to calculate the lodestar – that is, “the number of hours reasonably
expected on the litigation times a reasonable hourly rate” Enhancements to
the lodestar figure “may be awarded in rare and exceptional circumstances.”
Courts have also historically assessed the reasonableness of fee petitions
with respect to the following, known as the Johnson factors:
(1) the time and labor required in the case, (2) the
novelty and difficulty of the questions presented, (3) the skill required to
perform the necessary legal services, (4) the preclusion of other employment
by the lawyer due to acceptance of the case, (5) the customary fee for
similar work, (6) the contingency of a fee, (7) the time pressures imposed
in the case, (8) the award involved and the results obtained, (9) the
experience, reputation, and ability of the lawyer, (10) the “undesirability”
of the case, (11) the nature and length of the professional relationship
between the lawyer and the client, and (12) the fee awards made in similar
cases.
Although, the Supreme Court has recently shed doubt on
the reliability of this approach and described it as an “alternative” to the
lodestar method, it appears that courts continue to consider the Johnson
factors in determining attorney’s fees.
Plaintiffs sought $71,840.00 in attorney’s fees, which
represents 179.6 hours billed at a rate of $400.00 per hour. Under the Local
Rules of the District Court for the District of Maryland, however, the
presumptive lodestar fee range is $225.00 to $300.00 per hour for attorneys
who have been admitted to the bar for nine (9) to fourteen (14) years.
Plaintiffs argued, however, that an enhancement was appropriate due to the
particular skill required to prevail on the argument that the two (2)
corporate defendants formed a single enterprise and should have born
liability as joint employers, the undesirability of the case because the
primary Defendant, Central Services, LLC, was inoperative at the time the
suit was filed, and the favorable results achieved for Plaintiffs.
In support of their contention of entitlement to an
enhancement, Plaintiffs argued that the presumptive lodestar range is not
“adequate to attract competent counsel,” and submitted declarations from
four (4) attorneys who handled similar cases attesting that the case was
“risky” and would have been “particularly unattractive and undesirable” for
many attorneys. Moreover, Plaintiffs noted that the formula for hourly rates
in the local rules is based entirely on number of years of bar admission,
and that the Supreme Court has held that an enhancement may be appropriate
under such circumstances.
Defendants challenged Plaintiffs’ claim to a $400.00
hourly billing rate, arguing that no enhancement was warranted. They
disputed the difficulty of the case and the degree of Plaintiffs’ success on
their claims. They also argued that Plaintiffs “over litigated” the case and
that a reasonably hourly total would be 105.8 hours. Therefore, Defendants
contended that $31,740.00 was the most that should have been awarded –
representing 105.8 hours at a $300.00 hourly rate.
The Court was generally satisfied with the number of
billable hours claimed by Plaintiffs (179.6 hours). In calculating the
lodestar, the Court made two modifications to the total hours billed. First,
the Court granted Plaintiffs’ claim for an additional 13.1 hours to account
for their preparation of the Reply to Defendants’ Opposition to the Motion
for Attorney’s Fees and Costs. Second, 4.6 hours were reduced because
Plaintiffs traveled to file documents with the Court, which could have been
filed by mail. Accordingly, the Court found that 188.1 hours constituted a
reasonable total. With respect to the hourly rate, the Court declined to
apply an enhancement to the presumptive rate of $300.00 per hour. The Court
considered Supreme Court law and the Johnson factors. Accordingly, the Court
awarded attorney’s fees to the Plaintiffs in the amount of $56,430.00, which
represented 188.1 hours at a rate of $300.00 per hour. The Court declined to
grant pre-judgment interest, because the case was resolved reasonably
expeditiously.
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