Judge Calls Fee Request ‘Grossly Excessive,’ Trims Nearly $1M
A federal judge has found that two law firms were seeking excessive and unreasonable fees in a 2007 case and slashed their fee request by about $900,000.
The firms, Beveridge & Diamond and Bingham McCutchen, had sought $1.9 million from Kern County for representing nearby Los Angeles in a lawsuit, the Daily Journal reports (sub. req.). The judge hearing the suit invalidated a referendum passed in the county that had barred Los Angeles from using treated sewage on crops.
U.S. District Judge Gary Feess ruled on the fee request last week, the story says. “The court concludes that the hours spent by individual plaintiffs’ counsel in prosecuting this action were grossly excessive,” he said in a Sept. 3 ruling.
Feess said the law firms had documented nearly 739 hours preparing just the initial 29-page complaint, while the lawyer for Kern County spent only 764 hours in total defending the case, the Bakersfield Californian reports.
Beveridge & Diamond got $700,000 less than requested, and Bingham McCutchen got $200,000 less. Thomas Hixson of Bingham told the Daily Journal it’s not unusual for a judge to slash fee requests. “It’s routine to cut it down,” he said, “but it’s still a sizable award.”
