Local Rule 54.1: Motions for Attorney's Fees

Rule 54.1 Motions for Attorney's Fees

(A) Bifurcated Procedure. A party who seeks an award of attorney's fees must first move for a determination of the party's entitlement to a fee award and may move for a determination of the amount of an award only after the Court determines the party's entitlement to an award. Local Rule 7.1, including the requirement for the attorneys to confer in a good-faith effort to resolve the dispute, applies in full.

(B) Deadline for an Entitlement Motion. The deadline for moving for a determination of entitlement is 14 days after the entry of the judgment or, if there is no judgment, 14 days after the case is closed. An appeal does not extend the deadline unless the Court so orders.

(C) Maintaining Time Records. No award of attorney's fees will be made based in whole or part on time devoted to a case unless the attorney or other timekeeper made a contemporaneous, detailed record of the time to the nearest tenth hour. A detailed record must provide enough information to allow the Court to evaluate reasonableness; an entry like "research" or "conference" without a description of the subject will not do.

(D) Filing and Disclosing Time Records. Unless an assigned judge orders otherwise, the time records must not be filed with the Clerk until necessary for the determination of a fee motion. But a party must promptly disclose to another party—on a request made at any time—the total number of hours that have been devoted to the case by the party's attorneys and other timekeepers through the end of the month preceding the request.

(E) Required Filings in Support of a Motion to Determine the Fee Amount. If the Court determines that a party is entitled to a fee award, the party must file within 30 days:

(1) A declaration setting out the time devoted to the case by date and task, specifically identifying the timekeeper and the timekeeper's claimed hourly rate. The declaration must include sufficient detail to allow a determination of reasonableness. And the declaration must include sufficient detail to allow the maximum feasible separation of time devoted to matters that are and are not compensable and matters on which the party did and did not prevail.

(2) A declaration of an independent attorney addressing the reasonableness of the claimed time and rates.

(F) Required Filings in Opposition to a Motion to Determine the Fee Amount. A party who opposes a motion to determine the fee amount must file within 30 days after the motion is served a memorandum specifically identifying any objection to the claimed amount. If the party objects to a timekeeper's claimed hourly rate, the memorandum must set out the rate that the party asserts is reasonable. If the party asserts that hours should be reduced or not compensated, the memorandum must identify the hours or otherwise specifically describe the proposed reduction. The memorandum must set out the fee award the party asserts would be reasonable—and by doing so the party will not be deemed to waive the party's objection that fees should not be awarded at all.

(G) Additional Conference and Notice. After a party files a memorandum in opposition to the motion to determine the fee amount, the attorneys must confer again in a good-faith effort to resolve the dispute—on amount if not also on entitlement. The parties must file a notice of whether they have reached any agreement. The deadline for the notice is 14 days after the memorandum in opposition was filed.