Free Response to Motion - District Court of Delaware - Delaware

Case 1:04-cv-01469-SLR Document 69 Filed 12/21/2006 Page 1 of 2
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF DELAWARE
Stanford L. Bunis :
Plaintiff
: Civ. No. 04-1469-SLR
v. :
Richards Paving, Inc.
Defendant
DEFENDANT RICHARDS PAVING, INC.,’S
RESPONSE TO PLAINTIFF’S MOTION FOR ATTORNEY’S FEES
Defendant Richards Paving, Inc., (hereafter referred to as "Richards Paving”)
hereby moves this Court to enter an order modifying plaintiff s motion for attorneys fees.
1. Under McKnatt v. State of Delaware, "The court may exclude from the lodestar
calculation unnecessary hours or hours that lack proper documentation. 369 F.
Supp.2d 521, 524, (D.Del. 2004), citing Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424, 433
(1986).
2. ln the present case, plaintiffs counsel has attached an itemized bill of
professional services rendered in this case. On two separate dates, 2/18/05 and
2/19/05, plaintiffs counsel merely identifies "research" as work done in this
particular case. However, there is no description of the work performed, nor any
proper documentation to justify tive (5) hours of research at a cost of $1,750.
Based on the lack of specificity and proper documentation, this court should
reduce the attorney's’ fees by $1,750.
3. On 11/8/06, plaintiffs counsel billed 5.6 hours for "preparing responses to D’s
motion in limine", at a cost of $1,960. However, under the Court’s scheduling

Case 1:04-cv-01469-SLR Document 69 Filed 12/21/2006 Page 2 of 2
order, all responses to motions in limine were due by 11/6/06. At no time was
any extension requested by the plaintiff. Therefore, since plaintiffs counsel was
late in filing any response to defendants’ motions in limine and spent unnecessary
time in preparing the responses, plaintiffs attomeys’ fees should be reduced by
$1,960.
4. Based on the above, defendant respectfully requests that plaintiffs motion be
modified by $3,710.00.
5. Defendant further requests a modification of any additional attorney’s fees the
Court deems unreasonable and excessive.
WHEREFORE, for the reasons stated above, Richards Paving respectfully
requests that this Court modify plaintiff s motion for attorney’s fees in the amounts stated
above and any other relief the Court deems just.
ELZUFON AUSTIN REARDON
TARLOV & MONDELL, P.A.
Matthew P. Donelson, ID #4243
300 Delaware Avenue, Suite 1700
P.O. Box 1630
Wilmington, DE 19899-1630
(302) 428-3181
Attorney for Defendant
Dated: December 21, 2006 Richards Paving, Inc.