Schlacher v. Law Offices of Phillip J. Rotche, 08-4267.
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (7th Circuit) |
| Citation | 574 F.3d 852 |
| Docket Number | No. 08-4267.,08-4267. |
| Parties | Jean SCHLACHER, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. LAW OFFICES OF PHILLIP J. ROTCHE & ASSOCIATES, P.C., Defendant-Appellee. |
| Decision Date | 03 August 2009 |
v.
LAW OFFICES OF PHILLIP J. ROTCHE & ASSOCIATES, P.C., Defendant-Appellee.
[574 F.3d 854]
Curtis C. Warner (argued), Chicago, IL, for Plaintiffs-Appellants.
Timothy Shelton (argued), Stephen R. Swofford, Hinshaw & Culbertson, Chicago, IL, for Defendant-Appellee.
Before ROVNER, WOOD, and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges.
WILLIAMS, Circuit Judge.
Plaintiffs Jean, Alfred, and Teri Schlacher sued the defendant, a debt-collection law firm, for violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1692, and, within three months of filing their complaint, they accepted offers of judgment totaling $6,500. The plaintiffs, who were represented by four attorneys from three different law firms, sought attorney's fees of $12,495 and costs of $437.70. The district court awarded $6,500 in fees and costs, explaining that the unnecessary use of multiple attorneys had led to excessive
billing in a straightforward, short-lived case. We affirm.
After Jean Schlacher was delinquent on a payment for a root canal, her dentist, represented by the Law Offices of Phillip J. Rotche, sued Jean and her husband, Alfred, in state court. Judgment was entered for the dentist, and the Schlachers were required to make monthly payments of $14 until the remaining debt was paid. When they were late on their first payment, Jean received a harassing phone call from an employee of Rotche's, who accused her of being "retarded" and led her to believe that she would be jailed for failing to make the payment. Jean's daughter, Teri, called Rotche's office hoping to assuage her mother's fears, and the same employee threatened to report her to the police, recorded the conversation without her knowledge, and followed up with a threatening letter.
Hoping to halt these abusive collection practices, the Schlachers sought legal assistance and were rejected by more than half a dozen attorneys before retaining Colleen McLaughlin, who specializes in labor and employment law and consumer-contract disputes. McLaughlin recognized that the Schlachers had a claim under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act ("FDCPA"), 15 U.S.C. § 1692, but, because the statute of limitations was about to expire and her caseload was heavy, she enlisted Dmitry Feofanov, a consumer-protection attorney, who, in turn, contacted Curtis Warner, an FDCPA specialist. With a fourth lawyer (an associate of McLaughlin's), they together investigated the case and filed suit. Within three months, and before any discovery, the plaintiffs accepted offers of judgment from the defendant totaling $6,500: $1,000 (the statutory maximum, see 15 U.S.C. § 1692k(a)(2)) to each plaintiff, plus an additional $3,000 to Jean, and $500 to Teri, for actual damages.
After the parties' efforts to negotiate a reasonable award of attorney's fees were unsuccessful, the plaintiffs moved to compel the defendant to produce its own billing records. See N.D. ILL. LOCAL R. 54.3(d)(5). The district court denied the motion because the case settled too early for the defendant's billing to be relevant. At a hearing on the motion, the court explained its approach to the anticipated fee petition in this case. First, it observed that the lawsuit was resolved "in just a couple of months," and that the involvement of multiple attorneys here necessarily created "a substantial amount of overlap." Viewing the case as a "one-lawyer lawsuit," the court warned the plaintiffs that it would ask "[w]hat kind of time would have been spent" by one competent lawyer. That, the court concluded, would be "the measure of what reasonable is in terms of time."
The plaintiffs filed a fee petition seeking $437.70 in costs and $12,495 in attorney's fees for 41.6 hours of work, divided as follows:
-----------------------------------------------------------
Hourly Total
Attorney Rate Hours Fees1
-----------------------------------------------------------
Curtis Warner $260/2852 20.9/1.6 $5,899
-----------------------------------------------------------
Dmitry Feofanov $375 4.7 $1,762.50
-----------------------------------------------------------
Law Offices of Colleen
McLaughlin:
~Colleen McLaughlin $425 8.7 $3,697.50
~Elissa Hobfoll (third-year
associate) $250 3.7 $925
~Paralegal $100 2 $200
-----------------------------------------------------------
They supported the requested rates with their own declarations of market rates, copies of retainer agreements with other clients, and other evidence, but, with the exception of Warner (the FDCPA specialist), none of the attorneys presented evidence that they had received their proffered rate in an FDCPA case. The four lawyers billed for time that they all spent investigating and researching the plaintiffs' claims, drafting the complaint, filing and arguing a motion to strike one of the defendant's affirmative defenses, researching legal issues related to the offers of judgment, and performing legal research in response to the defendant's threat to move to strike the acceptances and seek sanctions against the plaintiffs.
The defendant made detailed objections to both the rates and the hours billed. It did not contest the costs of $437.70 or the two hours of paralegal work, but asserted that the attorney rates were unreasonable and proposed instead a $250/hour rate for McLaughlin, Feofanov, and Warner, and $195/hour for Hobfoll. The defendant also objected to the hours requested for the attorneys as excessive and identified 16.2 of the 39.6 hours that it believed were unnecessary or duplicative. Specifically, the defendant identified several instances in which McLaughlin and Warner had billed for the same task, multiple billing entries for internal communication, and billing entries for research that was either premature or unrelated to the plaintiffs' FDCPA claims. They thus offered to pay $5,885 in fees and $437.70 in costs, for a total of $6,322.70.
At the hearing on the fee petition, the court reiterated its view that the case was "essentially a one-lawyer lawsuit." While acknowledging the possible efficiencies of using multiple lawyers in some cases, the court explained that, in this case, "the multiplication of time that was involved by the fact of the multiplication of counsel just does not justify the kind of request that's involved here." Evidently because only Warner was an FDCPA specialist, the court also...
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In re Meltzer, 13 B 31151
...Gautreaux, 491 F.3d at 661, and time resulting from overstaffing the case, Schlacher v. Law Offices of Phillip J. Rotche & Assocs., P.C., 574 F.3d 852, 858 (7th Cir.2009). The party seeking fees has the burden of proving the reasonableness of the hours worked and should submit evidence supp......
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