Opinion
22-cv-23082-ALTMAN/Reid
03-30-2023
AMERLINE GILOT, Plaintiff, v. GREEN CROSS HOME CARE SERVICES, INC and ALINE E. LA FORTUNE, Defendants.
ORDER GRANTING MOTION FOR ATTORNEY'S FEES
ROY K. ALTMAN, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE
The Plaintiff filed a Motion for Attorney's Fees and Costs (the “Motion”) [ECF No. 15]. The Defendants-who never appeared in this case and against whom we've entered default final judgment, see Final Judgment [ECF No. 13]-did not respond, see generally Docket. In the Motion, the Plaintiff requests $4,037.50 in attorney's fees and $487.00 in costs. See Motion at 4. We've reviewed the Motion, the Plaintiff's Amended Declaration (“Norell Decl.”) [ECF No. 17-1], and the relevant law, and we find that the Plaintiff is entitled to recover the fees and costs she's requested.
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, a prevailing party is entitled to recover reasonable attorney's fees. See 29 U.S.C. § 216(b) (“The court in such action shall, in addition to any judgment awarded to the plaintiff or plaintiffs, allow a reasonable attorney's fee to be paid by the defendant, and costs of the action.”). As a result of the default in this case, the Plaintiff has benefitted from “a material alteration of the legal relationship of the parties” and, thus, is the prevailing party. See Buckhannon Bd. & Care Home, Inc. v. W.Va. Dep't of Health & Human Res., 532 U.S. 598, 604 (2001). “[A] reasonable attorney's fee is properly calculated by multiplying the number of hours reasonably expended on the litigation times a reasonable hourly rate.” Blum v. Stenson, 465 U.S. 886, 888 (1984).
First, we find the hourly rate in this case to be reasonable. A reasonable hourly rate is “the prevailing market rate in the relevant legal community for similar services by lawyers of reasonably comparable skills, experience, and reputation.” Gray v. Lockheed Aeronautical Sys. Co., 125 F.3d 1387, 1389 (11th Cir. 1997). The Plaintiff's lawyer, Robert Norell-who has 29 years of experience in employment law and has litigated more than 450 FLSA cases-charges $425.00 per hour. See Norell Decl. ¶ 5. In the Southern District of Florida, $425.00 is a reasonable hourly rate for a lawyer with Mr. Norell's level of experience. See, e.g., Araujo v. C.R.C. Car Rental Inc., 2017 WL 3382315, at *1 (S.D. Fla. Aug. 4, 2017) (Altonaga, J.) (finding $395 per hour reasonable for a lawyer with 17 years of experience); James v. Wash Depot Holdings, Inc., 489 F.Supp.2d 1341, 1350 (S.D. Fla. 2007) (Dimitrouleas, J.) (finding $450 per hour reasonable for two lawyers with 10 and 25 years of experience). And we agree with our colleagues that these rates are reasonable. Second, we've carefully reviewed each entry in the submitted billing records, and we find that the hours Mr. Norell claims are recoverable. So, the total amount of recoverable fees is $4,037.50
The Plaintiff also seeks to recover $487.00 in costs-specifically, for filing and process-server fees, which we also find reasonable. See Norell Decl. at 6 (listing the filing fee and two service-of-process fees); see also FED. R. CIV. P. 54(d)(1) (“Unless a federal statute, these rules, or a court order provides otherwise, costs-other than attorney's fees-should be allowed to the prevailing party.”); Hursey v. Bunches Direct USA, Inc., 2020 WL 13379282, at *7 (S.D. Fla. Aug. 3, 2020) (Moore, C.J.) (finding that “filing fees to the court ($400.00) and $63.10 in service charges” were both recoverable).
Since we're satisfied that the Plaintiff's fees and costs are all reasonable-and that she's entitled to recover them under 29 U.S.C. § 216(b)-we now ORDER and ADJUDGE as follows:
1. The Plaintiff's Motion for Attorney's Fees [ECF No. 15] is GRANTED.
2. The Plaintiff shall be awarded attorney's fees and litigation costs in the amount of $4,524.50, for which sum let execution now issue.
DONE AND ORDERED.