In a case that was defended by Cooper Walker at Malone Frost Martin, a Magistrate Court judge in Texas has recommended reducing a plaintiff’s attorneys fee award by nearly two-thirds after a settlement was reached in a Fair Debt Collection Practices Act case.
A copy of the report and recommendation in the case of Peterson v. Tenant Tracker, Inc., can be accessed by clicking here.
Magistrate Judge John D. Love of the District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Tyler Division recommended that the plaintiff’s counsel be awarded $5,918.06 in attorney’s fees and $400 in costs after they submitted a motion seeking $15,830 in fees and $475 in costs. The case was settled in June after a District Court judge granted the defendant’s motion to dismiss on two of the three counts but denied the motion on the count that the defendant violated Section 1692e(8) of the FDCPA. The settlement included an award of $1,001 for the plaintiff and reasonable attorney’s fees.
Judge Love reduced the hourly rate for the plaintiff’s counsel to $286.59 for the partners and $257.93 for associate from the requested rate of $525 per hour for the partners and $475 per hour for the associate. Judge Love looked at the State Bar of Texas Hourly Fact Sheet and applied the creditor-debtor hourly rate in East Texas of $250, adjusting it upwards to the final rate by accounting for inflation.
Judge Love also reduced the amount of hours worked by some of the attorneys and paralegals on the case, which reduced the overall fee award to $5,918.06. Judge Love declined to adjust the lodestar calculation upward or downward to account for other mitigating factors.
