Major v. Halliday Watkins & Mann, P.C.

Background

Nicholas R. Major brought claims under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) against Connexus Credit Union and Halliday Watkins & Mann, P.C. He alleged that letters and related communications about a 2007 loan falsely represented the amount or legal status of a debt, threatened unlawful action, and used deceptive, harassing, or unfair collection methods. Major believed that nothing remained owed on the loan.

Major voluntarily dismissed Connexus without prejudice before responding to Connexus’s motion to dismiss. Halliday Watkins answered the complaint and served a $3,000 offer of judgment. Major accepted that offer on July 30, 2024. The offer left the court to determine any attorney’s fees and costs available under the FDCPA.

Fee request and analysis

The FDCPA allows a successful plaintiff to recover the costs of the action and a reasonable attorney’s fee. Major requested $46,163.50 in attorney’s fees from Halliday Watkins alone.

The court found some of the requested attorney hourly rates reasonable, including the 2023 rates for attorneys Carl E. Christensen, Christopher J. Wilcox, and Ryan J. Supple. But it declined to approve the attorneys’ increased 2024 rates because Major did not provide an explanation supporting those increases. The court reduced the requested law-clerk rate from $145 per hour to $95 per hour because the request did not account for differences in the clerks’ qualifications and was not supported by evidence or authority. The court did not reduce the requested paralegal rates.

The court also found problems with the claimed hours and supporting records. The submissions contained inconsistent hour totals and a mathematical error. The court concluded that Major could not reasonably recover from Halliday Watkins all fees incurred in a case involving two defendants, especially because the records generally did not identify work specific to one defendant and Major had voluntarily dismissed his claims against Connexus. The court also identified inefficiencies, including work by seven professionals, duplicative internal communications, time spent drafting the complaint after it had been filed, corrected fee submissions, and the absence of discovery, hearings, or other substantial litigation activity.

Applying the adjusted rates and hours reduced the fee calculation to $33,047.50. The court then applied a 50 percent reduction for the work related to the two-defendant case and a further 15 percent reduction for the case’s remaining excessiveness issues. The resulting attorney’s-fee award was $11,566.63.

Order

Judge Eric C. Tostrud ordered that Major’s Motion for Attorneys’ Fees and Costs be granted in part. The court awarded Major $11,566.63 in attorney’s fees and $873.06 in costs, and directed that judgment be entered accordingly.