A recent New York Law Journal story, “Fee Request Found ‘Grossly Inflated’ Denied in Entirety,” reports that four law firms that submitted a “grossly inflated” $2.7 million fee request after winning $12,500 for their client should go away empty-handed, a federal judge ruled.  Eastern District Judge Joanna Seybert, sitting in Central Islip, NY, condemned the fee application submitted by real estate investor Robert Toussie’s attorneys, including $2.65 million for Chadbourne & Parke, as “outrageously excessive” and done in “bad faith.”

“Counsel have so grossly inflated their fee application to a figure more than 200 times Toussie’s recovery—by ignoring prior directive of [Magistrate Judge Arlene] Lindsay, seeking fees related to claims on which Plaintiffs obviously did not prevail, misrepresenting the total number of hours billed, and providing extraordinary vague descriptions of billable hours in block time entries such that the Court cannot even begin to determine how many hours were actually spent on Toussie’s successful claims—in the hopes that the Court would award a small fraction of that.

In their request for legal fees, Toussie’s attorneys submitted more than 400 pages of billing records.  They maintained the case was “extremely complex in all aspects,” and further complicated by the case’s “vast record.” They argued Toussie had won more than nominal damages and his constitutional rights had been vindicated.

But Suffolk County claimed Toussie’s attorneys were not entitled to fees because the jury award was “de minimus” and the request was “so unreasonable and grossly excessive.”  At most, the county said, Toussie’s attorneys should get $25,000, representing twice the amount of the jury award.  The judge observed the sought-after hourly rates ranged from $375 to $905, but those “greatly exceed” the rates now being awarded in the Eastern and Southern districts.  She also faulted the attorneys for not breaking out travel time and asking 100 percent compensation though Lindsay previously ordered that travel time was compensable at 50 percent.