Beryl A. Howell, United States District Judge
The plaintiff, Stephanie Robinson, seeks $28,422.50 in attorneys' fees as the prevailing party in an administrative due process hearing against the defendant, the District of Columbia, arising from her claim under the Individuals with Disabilities Education
The plaintiff is "the aunt and legal guardian of T.R., a fifteen-year old student," who is eligible for special education services. See R & R at 2. The plaintiff successfully brought an administrative Due Process Complaint against the defendant under the IDEA, alleging, inter alia, that the defendant had denied T.R. a "free and appropriate public education" ("FAPE"), and also seeking to overturn a manifestation determination
After a Due Process hearing, the HO ordered additional relief for the plaintiff based on findings that the defendant had denied T.R. "a FAPE when it failed to provide the Student with special education in conformity with her IEP during the 2012-2013 school year by not providing the specialized instruction required" and when it unilaterally "changed the Student's educational placement to a less restrictive environment." Pl.'s Mot. Summ. J. ("Pl.'s Mot.") Ex. 1 (Hr'g Officer Determination ("HOD")) at 3, ECF No. 8-2. The plaintiff was awarded 150 hours of compensatory education and prospective placement at a private, specialized day school in Virginia. Id. at 18.
The plaintiff filed the instant suit in July 2013, seeking attorneys' fees and costs as provided under 20 U.S.C. § 1415(i)(3)(B). See Compl. at 16-17, ECF No. 1. The matter was referred to a Magistrate Judge for a report and recommendation. See Order at 1, July 3, 2013, ECF No. 3. The R & R, filed on March 14, 2014, made the following findings: (1) the plaintiff was a "prevailing party" for the purposes of the IDEA, R & R at 6; (2) the plaintiff's requested rate for fees, which mirrors the Laffey matrix for an attorney and paralegal with the professional experience of plaintiff's counsel and paralegal, should be
The plaintiff timely objected to three portions of the R & R: (1) "the recommendation that Attorney Hecht and Paralegal Chithalina Khanchalern both be paid an hourly rate equal to 75% of those set out in the Laffey Matrix[,]" Pl.'s Objs. at 1; (2) "a 50% reduction in the hours spent by the paralegal and the attorney in preparing and reviewing" certain administrative hearing disclosures, id.; and (3) the recommended reduction in paralegal time by "3.3 hours" for `clerical tasks' that the Plaintiff had already voluntarily withdrawn[,]" id. (emphasis in original). The defendant filed no objections. Consequently, the Court adopts the R & R in full except for those portions pertaining to the objections made by the plaintiff.
Motions for attorneys' fees may be referred to a Magistrate Judge for a report and recommendation and any objections thereto are subject to de novo review by the District Court. FED. R. CIV. P. 54(d)(2)(D) (stating that a court "may refer a motion for attorney's fees to a magistrate judge under Rule 72(b) as if it were a dispositive pretrial matter"); see also David v. District of Columbia, 252 F.R.D. 56, 58 (D.D.C.2008) (noting "the limited jurisdiction granted by Congress to a magistrate judge in Federal Rules 54(d)(2)(D) and 72(b) to issue a recommendation on a motion for attorneys' fees"). Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 72(b) sets out the applicable standard of review, providing that "[t]he district judge must determine de novo any part of the magistrate judge's disposition that has been properly objected to[,]" and "may accept, reject, or modify the recommended disposition." FED. R. CIV. P. 72(b)(3); see also LCvR 72.3(c) ("A district judge shall make a de novo determination of those portions of a magistrate judge's findings and recommendations to which objection is made").
The IDEA provides that "the court, in its discretion, may award reasonable attorneys' fees ... (I) to a prevailing party who is the parent of a child with a disability." 20 U.S.C. § 1415(i)(3)(B)(i). Courts follow a two-pronged inquiry to determine attorneys' fees under the IDEA by, first, determining if the party seeking fees is a "prevailing party" and then determining what fees are "reasonable." See id.; see also Alegria v. District of Columbia, 391 F.3d 262, 269 (D.C.Cir.2004) (affirming denial of attorneys' fees where litigant failed to prove threshold requirement that litigant be prevailing party under IDEA); Wheeler ex rel. Wheeler v. Towanda Area Sch. Dist., 950 F.2d 128, 131 (3d Cir.1991) (noting that determining whether party is "prevailing party" is first step in evaluating entitlement to attorneys' fees under IDEA); B.R. ex rel. Rempson v. District of Columbia, 802 F.Supp.2d 153, 162-63 (D.D.C.2011).
With respect to the first prong, the Supreme Court has "long held that the term `prevailing party' in fee statutes is a `term of art' that refers to the prevailing litigant," reflecting "the fact that statutes
Determining the reasonable attorneys' fees to which a prevailing party is entitled entails a three-part analysis: "(1) determination of the number of hours reasonably expanded [sic] in litigation; (2) determination of a reasonable hourly rate or `lodestar;' and (3) the use of multipliers as merited." Save Our Cumberland Mountains, Inc. v. Hodel, 857 F.2d 1516, 1517 (D.C.Cir.1988) ("SOCM") (citation omitted). The fee applicant bears the burden of justifying the attorneys' fees requested. See Covington v. District of Columbia, 57 F.3d 1101, 1107 (D.C.Cir.1995) ("A fee applicant bears the burden of establishing an entitlement to an award, documenting the appropriate hours, and justifying the reasonableness of the rates.") (citing Blum v. Stenson, 465 U.S. 886, 896 n. 11, 104 S.Ct. 1541, 79 L.Ed.2d 891 (1984)). Thus, in IDEA attorneys' fees cases, the party seeking fees must show she is a prevailing party entitled to an award, and the SOCM test to show the reasonableness of the number of hours expended and the hourly billing rate. See Thomas v. Nat'l Science Found., 330 F.3d 486, 492 (D.C.Cir.2003); In re North (Bush Fee Application), 59 F.3d 184, 189 (D.C.Cir.1995) ("[T]he fee petitioner bears the burden of establishing all elements of his entitlement.").
To meet the latter burden, the plaintiff must submit evidence regarding "the attorneys' billing practices; the attorneys' skill, experience, and reputation; and the prevailing market rates in the relevant community." Covington, 57 F.3d at 1107. Upon submission of such information, a presumption applies that the number of hours billed and the hourly rates are reasonable. See Jackson v. District of Columbia, 696 F.Supp.2d 97, 100-01 (D.D.C. 2010) (citing Blackman v. District of Columbia, 677 F.Supp.2d 169, 172 (D.D.C. 2010)). The burden then shifts to the defendant "provide specific contrary evidence
Since the R & R recommends finding that the plaintiff is a prevailing party within the meaning of 20 U.S.C. § 1415(i)(3)(B)(i), see R & R at 6, and no objection is interposed to that finding, the Court adopts the R & R recommendation on this issue and finds that the plaintiff is a prevailing party who may recover attorneys' fees. The plaintiff's objections fall into two general categories: the appropriate rate for her attorneys' fees and specific disputes over a small amount of invoiced time. Each category of objection is analyzed below.
Under the three-part SOCM test for determining a reasonable fee, which includes determination of the number of hours and use of any multipliers, the parties do not dispute the number of hours reasonably expended in this litigation, except the relatively small number of hours discussed in Parts III.B, infra, and no multiplier may be requested or awarded under the IDEA. 20 U.S.C. 1415(i)(3)(C) ("No bonus or multiplier may be used in calculating the fees awarded under this subsection."). Thus, the only part of the SOCM test at issue in this matter is the determination of the reasonable hourly rate. To establish a reasonable hourly rate, the plaintiff must show "at least three elements:" "[1] the attorneys' billing practices; [2] the attorneys' skill, experience, and reputation; and [3] the prevailing market rates in the relevant community." Covington, 57 F.3d at 1107. Once the plaintiff has provided "such information, a plaintiff establishes a presumption that the number of hours billed and the hourly rate are reasonable, and the burden shifts to the defendant to rebut the plaintiff's showing of reasonable hours and reasonable hourly rates for attorneys of the relevant level of skill and experience." Rooths, 802 F.Supp.2d 56, 60 (D.D.C.2011).
As to the first element, the attorney's billing practices, the defendant does not challenge the plaintiff's counsel's verified statement that the counsel's firm "currently matches its hourly rates to those in what is known as the USAO adjusted Laffey matrix." Pl.'s Mot. Ex. 3 ("Verified Statement of Att'y Alana Hecht, Aug. 21, 2013") ¶ 9, ECF No. 8-4; see generally Def.'s Reply Pl.'s Objs. ("Def.'s Opp'n"), ECF No. 20. Indeed, the defendant ignores this factor entirely. See generally Def.'s Opp'n. Similarly, the defendant does not explicitly challenge the plaintiff's counsel's "skill, experience, and reputation," Covington, 57 F.3d at 1107, except to raise questions about the meticulousness of the plaintiff's counsel's bookkeeping practices and the dual role of the plaintiff's paralegal, which are entirely irrelevant here.
The defendant is correct that "[t]he IDEA is controlling on the matter of rate." Def.'s Opp'n at 6. This law provides that "[f]ees awarded ... shall be based on rates prevailing in the community in which the action or proceeding arose for the kind and quality of services furnished." 20 U.S.C. § 1415(i)(3)(C). The D.C. Circuit has made it clear that the Laffey matrix, which is maintained and updated by the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia as a reasonable approximation of the rates charged by attorneys in the District of Columbia for complex federal litigation, is a "useful starting point" for proving the prevailing market rate for services. See Covington, 57 F.3d at 1109. The Laffey matrix has been used repeatedly by judges in this District as an appropriate measure of the prevailing rate in the community for IDEA cases, holding that such rates are presumptively reasonable. See Thomas v. District of Columbia, 908 F.Supp.2d 233, 243 & n. 6 (D.D.C.2012) (collecting cases). Thus, by pointing to the Laffey matrix as her proof of prevailing community rates, the plaintiff has provided the appropriate starting point for the "case by case analysis" that must be made when evaluating a fee petition under the IDEA. See A.S. v. District of Columbia, 842 F.Supp.2d 40, 48 (D.D.C.2012).
Since the plaintiff has met each of the SOCM test's three parts, the burden shifts to the defendant "to go forward with evidence that the rate is erroneous." Covington, 57 F.3d at 1109 (quoting Concerned Veterans, 675 F.2d at 1326); see Rooths, 802 F.Supp.2d at 60 ("[t]he burden shifts to the defendant to rebut the plaintiff's showing of ... reasonable hourly rates."). In its cross-motion for summary judgment, however, the defendant attempts to place the burden on the plaintiff to justify the presumptively reasonable rates. See Def.'s Mem. Supp. Cross-Mot. Summ. J., ("Def.'s Mem.") at 6, ECF No. 10-1. Specifically,
The defendant essentially makes one argument as to why the Laffey matrix rates should not apply in this matter: that the instant case "was not a complex matter" deserving of full Laffey rates. Def.'s Mem. at 7. While complexity is one of the factors that may be considered as part of the reasonableness of an attorney's overall fee, see Thomas, 908 F.Supp.2d at 246-47, it is not, in and of itself, sufficient to overcome the presumption that the claimed Laffey rates are reasonable. Indeed, Supreme Court precedent is clear that "the novelty and complexity of a case... `presumably [is] fully reflected in the number of billable hours recorded by counsel.'" Perdue v. Kenny A. ex rel. Winn, 559 U.S. 542, 553, 130 S.Ct. 1662, 176 L.Ed.2d 494 (2010) (quoting Pennsylvania v. Del. Valley Citizens Council for Clean Air, 478 U.S. 546, 565, 106 S.Ct. 3088, 92 L.Ed.2d 439 (1986) (second alteration in original)).
The Perdue court went on to note that "when a trial judge awards an enhancement on an impressionistic basis, a major purpose of the lodestar method — providing an objective and reviewable basis for fees — is undermined." Id. at 558, 130 S.Ct. 1662 (internal citations omitted). The same logic holds true for reductions, since reductions "on an impressionistic basis," id. similarly undermine the "objective and reviewable basis for fees," id. that commends the lodestar method. The defendant's argument appears to be that at some point, perhaps after a certain number of witnesses are called or a certain number of exhibits are introduced, the presumptively reasonable Laffey rates are warranted, but not until that indistinct and ephemeral point is reached. See Def.'s
Aside from subjective discussions of what constitutes a "complex" case, the only justification the defendant offers as to why a twenty-five percent reduction from the Laffey rates is appropriate is that "the instant case involves fees from a case litigated solely at the administrative level." Def.'s Opp'n at 7. In the defendant's view, administrative proceedings under the IDEA are inherently less complex and, consequently, less deserving of the presumptively reasonable full Laffey rates. See id. The defendant points out that the posture of the instant case, in which the litigation occurred at the administrative level, differentiates it from two previous opinions of this Court where Laffey rates were awarded, Eley v. District of Columbia, No. 11-309, 999 F.Supp.2d 137, 2013 WL 6092502 (D.D.C. Nov. 20, 2013), and Thomas v. District of Columbia, No. 10-913, 908 F.Supp.2d 233 (D.D.C.2012), both of which involved extensive substantive motions practice in the District Court. See Def.'s Opp'n at 6-7. There is no statutory basis for the distinction the defendant attempts to draw in what constitutes a reasonable hourly rate depending on whether the party prevailed in administrative proceedings or federal court, or both.
This argument reflects the District of Columbia's latest attempt to limit its liability for attorneys' fees in IDEA litigation when it has been found — repeatedly — to be acting in a manner that violates the civil rights of some of the District's most vulnerable citizens: children with special needs. For instance, over thirty years ago, the District of Columbia argued that plaintiffs, who were successful on the administrative level, were not entitled to recover any attorneys' fees under the virtually identical language of IDEA's predecessor statute. See Moore v. District of Columbia, 907 F.2d 165, 167 (D.C.Cir.1990).
Just as the IDEA explicitly authorizes fee awards for parties who prevail in administrative actions alone, see id. it makes no distinction between a reasonable rate
To bolster its argument that attorneys' fees for administrative proceedings should be awarded at a lower rate than for District Court actions, the defendant relies on a footnote in one of this Court's opinions, see Def.'s Opp'n at 7 (quoting Eley, 999 F.Supp.2d at 159, n. 12, 2013 WL 6092502, at *14 n. 12), but that reliance is misplaced and the quotation is taken out of context. The dicta in question states that "[w]here the merits of an IDEA case have been resolved administratively and the litigation in federal court is limited to a dispute over attorneys' fees, courts have regarded the USAO matrix rates as inapplicable." Eley, 2013 WL 6092502, at *14 n. 12. Far from standing for the proposition that the Laffey matrix is categorically inapplicable to administrative proceedings, this footnote merely acknowledges that some courts have ruled that the Laffey matrix did not apply to some routine administrative proceedings, without opining or holding that such a ruling was appropriate, since Eley did not involve administrative proceedings only. See id. To the contrary, this Court noted in Eley that "a complexity determination is not the dispositive question as to whether" Laffey rates should apply, but even if it were, "IDEA cases, as a subset of civil rights litigation... qualify as `complex' federal litigation." Id.
Finally, the defendant makes an implicit argument, through citing twenty-nine cases from the past three years where a rate lower than that reflected in the Laffey matrix was applied, that seventy-five percent of Laffey matrix rates is the market rate for IDEA litigation. See Def.'s Opp'n at 4-6. These cases rely heavily, if not entirely, on the complexity factor the Court has previously rejected and, in many instances, required the plaintiff to justify the presumptively reasonable Laffey rates, rather than requiring the defendant to disprove those rates. See, e.g., Wallace v. District of Columbia, 42 F.Supp.3d 43 (D.D.C. May 16, 2012); Jones v. District of Columbia, 2012 WL 1664231, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 65941, No. 11-168 (D.D.C. May 11, 2012); Young v. District of Columbia, 869 F.Supp.2d 1 (D.D.C.2012); Scott v. District of Columbia, 2012 WL 1633207, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 65372, No.
Moreover, as one of the very cases on which the defendant relies points out, "unless a party is prepared to support its argument with `statistical, economic, or other evidence to include, perhaps, expert testimony,' there is no way to determine what rate reflects the actual market rate[.]" Moss v. District of Columbia, No. 11-994, 2012 WL 4510682, at *2-3, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 109987, at *7-8 (D.D.C. July 12, 2012) (quoting Johnson v. District of Columbia, 850 F.Supp.2d 74, 79 (D.D.C. 2012)). While the Laffey matrix has been accepted as the "starting point" for civil rights litigation rates in this district for more than twenty-five years, see SOCM, 857 F.2d at 1525, the defendant has offered no "statistical, economic, or other evidence," Moss, 2012 WL 4510682, at *2-3, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 109987, at *7, that seventy-five percent of Laffey rates is the market rate for civil rights litigators in this District. It is the defendant's burden, not the plaintiff's, to challenge the established baseline that is the Laffey matrix, see Covington, 57 F.3d at 1109, and the defendant's cherry-picking of cases favorable to its view is an inadequate substitute for the sound methodology on which the various versions of the Laffey matrix rest.
In sum, since the lodestar approach embodied by the SOCM test "includes most, if not all, of the relevant factors constituting a `reasonable' attorney's fee," Delaware Valley, 478 U.S. at 566, 106 S.Ct. 3088, and "novelty and complexity of a case generally may not be used as a ground for" altering the lodestar amount since "these factors presumably [are] fully reflected in the number of billable hours recorded by counsel[,]" Perdue, 559 U.S. at 553, 130 S.Ct. 1662 (internal quotation marks omitted; first alteration in original), the defendant has failed to provide sufficient evidence to overcome the presumptively reasonable Laffey rates sought by the plaintiff. Consequently, the plaintiff's objections to the R & R's reduction in rate to seventy-five percent of the Laffey matrix rates are sustained, and the Court finds that the full rate requested by the plaintiff for the plaintiff's counsel and paralegal, $290 per hour and $145 per hour, respectively, see Pl.'s Objs. at 22, are reasonable and reflect the prevailing community rate for IDEA litigation in this District.
The plaintiff's remaining objections relate to two distinct sets of hours expended that the R & R found unreasonable: (1) the reduction by fifty percent of attorney and paralegal hours spent reviewing disclosures prior to the administrative hearing; and (2) a 3.3 hour reduction in paralegal time pertaining to certain clerical tasks the plaintiff asserts were duplicative of concessions the plaintiff already made. Each set of hours is addressed in turn.
The first set of reductions to which the plaintiff objects are a reduction by fifty percent of the 5.6 hours of attorney time and eleven hours of paralegal time spent compiling and preparing disclosures between June 6, 2013 and June 12 2013. See Pl.'s Objs. at 14; R & R at 16. The R & R recommended these hours be halved because "the number of hours billed are unreasonable and the entries themselves duplicative of one another." R & R at 16.
First, two of the entries objected to, for attorney time on June 6, 2013, totaling 1.5 hours of attorney time, appear to refer to activity that was almost entirely clerical in nature. The first entry, for .5 hours, details when the attorney "[n]umbered 5-day per []HO requirement and gave to paralegal to PDF into one large document ... All exhibits are to be numbered page by page." Pl.'s Objs. at 14. In other words, the attorney spent one half hour "Bates" stamping the pages in her disclosures — a task that requires no legal expertise. The second entry, for one hour, details when the attorney reviewed the disclosure, "ensure[d] it me[t] the requirements of the []HO's Orders ... and file[d] it in accordance with the requirements." Id. Again, this task does not appear to require any particular legal expertise. The R & R's recommendation that the plaintiff's counsel's time for these two entries be cut in half to represent the clerical portion of the work is reasonable. The plaintiff's objection to this reduction is overruled.
Similarly, for the seven hours of paralegal time the R & R recommends reducing by half because of the clerical nature of the tasks, such a deduction appears reasonable and, in fact, somewhat conservative.
The R & R recommends reducing two additional entries pertaining to the plaintiff's disclosures by fifty percent: 4.1 attorney hours for reviewing the disclosures immediately prior to the administrative hearing and four hours of paralegal time for the paralegal's review. R & R at 16-17. The two entries are not duplicative, since the paralegal attended the administrative hearing on June 13, 2013 and assisted the plaintiff's attorney at the hearing. See R & R at 15. The R & R does not explain why spending four hours reviewing and annotating over four hundred pages of documents to be referred to at an administrative hearing immediately prior to a hearing and a full week after they were compiled is unreasonable, aside from conclusorily stating that the "number of hours billed are unreasonable." R & R at 16. Since the hours expended are presumptively reasonable if appropriately recorded with sufficient detail, see Covington, 57 F.3d at 1109 — and there is no dispute that these billing records were sufficiently detailed — the burden should have shifted to the defendant to come forward with evidence indicating that the time expended on such a task was clearly unreasonable. See id. The defendant's argument as to why these hours were excessive consisted of a cursory comparison to an unrelated case, without any analysis of the similarities or differences between the two cases, and a conclusory statement that "Plaintiffs spent nearly 20 hours on the disclosures in this case, which basically consisted of photocopied school documents. This is excessive." Def.'s Mem. at 15. Such conclusory and unsupported analysis is unpersuasive and falls far short of the level of proof required to overcome the presumption of reasonableness. The plaintiff's objections to the fifty percent reduction in attorney and paralegal time for the June 11 and June 12, 2013 entries are sustained.
In summary, the plaintiff's objections are sustained as to the reduction in time for reviewing the disclosures immediately prior to the administrative hearing. The plaintiff's objections to the fifty percent reduction in attorney and paralegal time in preparing the disclosures are overruled, since it appears that most of that time was taken up by non-compensable clerical tasks.
The plaintiff's remaining objection is to the deduction of 3.3 hours of paralegal time that the plaintiff asserts was double counted by the R & R. Pl.'s Objs. at 19-20. The plaintiff appears to be correct, and the defendant does not dispute that the entries
The R & R's final calculation of fees due to the plaintiff was based on "the original request minus the fees the Plaintiff withdrew in the Reply." R & R at 3 n.3. Thus, by disallowing charges that were already removed from the invoice amount, and then deducting those charges from the adjusted fee request, as modified by the plaintiff's reply, the R & R would deduct these charges twice. The parties agree the deductions should not occur twice and, consequently, the plaintiff's objections as to the 3.3 hours of paralegal time referred to in the R & R at pages seventeen and eighteen are sustained.
The Court adopts the Report and Recommendation of the Magistrate Judge in part and sustains the objections of the plaintiff in part. The plaintiff's objection to reducing the plaintiff's counsel's and paralegal's fee rates to seventy-five percent of the requested Laffey rate is sustained. The plaintiff's objection to a reduction of 3.3 hours of paralegal time as having been already deducted from the invoice under consideration is sustained. The plaintiff's objection to a fifty percent reduction in the 4.1 hours of attorney time and four hours of paralegal time expended on reviewing disclosures prior to the administrative hearing is sustained. The plaintiff's objection to the fifty percent reduction in the attorney's and paralegal's time spent preparing the disclosures on June 6, 2013 is overruled.
Based on these findings, the plaintiff's Motion for Summary Judgment is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part; the defendant's Cross-Motion for Summary Judgment is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part. The plaintiff has appropriately justified 68.75 hours of attorney time at the full Laffey matrix rate of $290 per hour for an attorney of the plaintiff's counsel's experience and 51.5 hours of paralegal time at the full Laffey matrix rate of $145 per hour. The defendant shall pay the plaintiff $27,405.00 in reasonable attorneys' fees by August 31, 2014.
An appropriate Order accompanies this Memorandum Opinion.
