A recent Law 360 story by Donald Morrison, “Steel Co. Balks At Iron Workers ‘Excessive $111K Atty Fee Bid”, reports that a Nevada steel company has urged a Michigan federal judge to deny a request from ironworkers' union benefit funds to add nearly $111,000 in attorney fees to a $2.2 million judgment, saying the funds billed hours excessively and failed to provide accurate invoices.  Next Century Rebar LLC said in a brief that requests from the funds for Iron Workers' Local No. 25 for the court to award more than $110,900 in attorney fees and over $18,000 in costs related to a $2.2 million judgment in an unpaid benefits suit are "excessive, duplicative, and vague," seeking a dismissal of the motion.

"The requested fees and costs are unsupported by actual invoices or audit records," Next Century said.  "Certain time and labor expended was unreasonably duplicative or redundant, where the pleadings are either the same or similar as pleadings filed by the same firm in other matters."

The funds filed their motion for attorney fees on Oct. 17, saying their counsel put in 388.8 attorney hours to argue the case at a rate between $150 and $395 per hour.  The funds also noted the "voluminous records" that Next Century provided in discovery and the numerous depositions that required the funds' attorneys to spend more time with the case.  They said the addition of fees and costs would increase the judgment to $2,348,110.61.

But Next Century argued the funds' failed to offer any documentation to support the bid for more than $18,000 in costs, including for an audit.  "Counsel seeks cost for an audit without any support of the actual cost of the audit or fees billed by the auditor for the same, let alone actual proof of payment for an audit," Next Century said.  "Instead of documentation or itemization of costs, plaintiffs identify five generalized bullet points, one of which is for an outrageous $13,090 in audit costs."

Next Century also accuses the funds' counsel of needlessly reviewing audits in order to drive up costs and of improperly billing for dozens of hours for clerical work that is ultimately not recoverable.  "Excessive review of the audit is ongoing throughout the time entries of multiple persons without any detail or reason," Next Century said.  "Counsel's time entries include clerical tasks that should not be billed at the attorney rate and passed onto Next Century."

Next Century said numerous tasks normally deemed clerical work, such as filing reports, document review, deadline calculations and contacting the court did not require attorney expertise, and "should have been completed by an assistant, legal clerk or paralegal."