M.R. v. New York City Department of Education
- Lorna Schofield
- 1:21-cv-06668
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 11
In M.R. v. New York City Department of Education, Judge Schofield awarded $40,771 in IDEA attorneys’ fees, costs, and post-judgment interest.
M.R. and M.R.’s counsel received the awarded fees, filing costs, and post-judgment interest; the New York City Department of Education was ordered to pay the award.
What happened
In M.R. v. New York City Department of Education, M.R., the parent of J.R., sought reimbursement for legal work after an administrative officer found that the Department of Education had not provided J.R. with an appropriate public education. The Department did not dispute that M.R. was entitled to recover fees but argued that the requested hours and rates were excessive.
Judge Schofield reduced the requested fees for the administrative proceeding, finding that a 20% reduction in billed hours was appropriate. The court accepted the requested hours for the federal fee case, but reduced several hourly rates for the attorneys and paralegal.
Judge Schofield awarded M.R. $40,771: $20,914 for the administrative proceeding, $19,455 for the federal fee case, and $402 in filing costs. The court also granted post-judgment interest at the applicable statutory rate and directed the Clerk to close the motion.
The detailed version
- M.R. v. New York City Department of Education · No. 1:21-cv-06668
- Lorna Schofield
- Aug. 4, 2022
Background
M.R. brought the action under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which allows a court to award reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs to a parent who prevailed in an IDEA proceeding. M.R. requested $64,315: $32,240 for the underlying administrative proceeding and $32,075 for the federal case seeking attorneys’ fees.
M.R. is J.R.’s parent. The opinion states that J.R. is a child with a disability under the IDEA. M.R. retained the Law Office of Steven Alizio, PLLC, to pursue claims that the New York City Department of Education had failed to provide J.R. with a free and appropriate public education. M.R. enrolled J.R. at Stevenson, a private school with therapeutic support, for the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years.
M.R. filed an administrative due-process complaint seeking tuition funding for those school years and 600 hours of compensatory one-on-one tutoring. After a hearing lasting about two hours, the impartial hearing officer found that the Department of Education had not shown that it offered J.R. a free and appropriate public education and granted M.R.’s requested relief in full. The Department did not dispute that M.R. was the prevailing party entitled to seek fees.
Fee Analysis
The court calculated a reasonable fee by determining reasonable hourly rates and reasonable hours. This method is commonly called the “lodestar”: reasonable hours multiplied by a reasonable hourly rate. The court considered the case’s complexity, the lawyers’ experience, comparable awards, and the work required.
For the administrative proceeding, M.R. requested compensation for 87.8 hours. The Department sought a 50% reduction, arguing that the billing was excessive given the length and limited opposition at the hearing. The court applied a 20% reduction, allowing compensation for 70.24 hours. For the federal fee case, the court found the requested 62.2 hours reasonable because the action was limited to determining the amount of fees and costs.
The court reduced the requested hourly rates. It awarded rates of $325 per hour for Steven Alizio’s later work, $350 per hour for Justin Shane, $275 per hour for Jennifer Gemmell, and $100 per hour for paralegal Dianne Ho. The administrative-proceeding award totaled $20,914. The federal-proceeding attorneys’ fee award totaled $19,455. The court also awarded the uncontested $402 filing fee.
Disposition
The court awarded M.R. $40,771, consisting of $20,914 in attorneys’ fees for the administrative proceeding, $19,455 in attorneys’ fees for the federal proceeding, and $402 in filing fees. The court granted M.R.’s request for post-judgment interest, calculated at the applicable statutory rate. The Clerk of Court was directed to close the motion at Docket No. 21.
The opinion contains an apparent internal inconsistency concerning Steven Alizio’s pre-May 13, 2020 hourly rate: one passage states that the reasonable rate was $300, while the final administrative-award table applies a $275 rate. The stated award totals and final disposition are reported as written.
Read the full 11-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.