Virginia Lawyers Weekly

An Alexandria U.S. District Court rejects use of the Laffey Matrix to determine a fee award for plaintiff employees of group homes for disabled clients, who are entitled to attorney’s fees as prevailing parties under the Fair Labor Standards Act, and awards plaintiffs $36,000 in attorney’s fees and $408 in costs.

Defendants correctly contend that the Laffey Matrix, which was developed in the District of Columbia, does not accurately reflect the prevailing rates in Northern Virginia, where this case was litigated. Defendants also provide affidavits of lead defense counsel and of another extremely experienced Northern Virginia employment lawyer, both of which provide strong support for the conclusion that prevailing hourly rates in this district are significantly less than the hourly rates plaintiffs’ counsel charged in this civil action.

The 4th Circuit recently noted in Robinson v. Equifax Info. Servs., 560 F.3d 235 (4th Cir. 2009), that the Laffey Matrix does not control in the Eastern District of Virginia.

The court will reduce the hourly rate to $350 for two senior counsel, $170 for the associate, and $60 for the legal assistant. The court will award no fees for the private investigator.

The court further finds that the fees charged for running background checks on the parties and performing additional research on defendants were unnecessary to litigate the FLSA claims, as were fees related to the case evaluation meeting on July 18, 2008.

Jackson v. Estelle Place LLC (Brinkema, J.) No. 1:08cv984, May 8, 2009; USDC at Alexandria, Va. VLW 009-3-273, 13 pp.

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