Summary. A two-sided checklist: the applicant's sequence from intake through the bill of costs, and the opposition's — including the three targets that work and the arguments that do not. Sanctions-based fee claims and fee settlement structures close it out.

For doctrine, see Attorneys Fees and Costs. For the workflow, see Preparing and Opposing a Fee Petition.

PART ONE — THE APPLICANT

Phase 1 — Entitlement, at intake

  • Fee basis identified by statute section or contract paragraph, with a citation in the case memo.
  • Directionality confirmed: one-way, mutual, or made mutual by a reciprocity statute.
  • Trigger language read: prevailing party · substantially prevailing · successful · some degree of success on the merits.
  • Discretionary ("may allow") or mandatory ("shall award")?
  • Scope of a contractual clause checked against the claims actually pleaded (tort? statutory? declaratory?).
  • Fee claim pleaded with specificity in the complaint (or answer, for the defense) — several jurisdictions require it for preservation.
  • Local offer-of-judgment rule identified and its shifting effect understood.
  • Client advised, in writing, how a fee award interacts with the fee agreement.

Phase 2 — Timekeeping standards (every day of the case)

  • Contemporaneous entries, made the day the work is done.
  • One task per entry. No block billing.
  • Each entry names the task and its subject ("Draft Part III of SJ opposition re: pretext" not "work on brief").
  • Claim tags on entries where multiple claims may not all succeed.
  • Clerical work (filing, calendaring, Bates-stamping, binder assembly) not billed at professional rates.
  • Travel recorded separately so a half-rate rule can be applied without cutting substantive work.
  • Staffing proportionate — no unnecessary second attendee at depositions or hearings.
  • Minimum increment consistent and defensible.
  • Rate file maintained: fee awards from this district, practitioner declarations, rate surveys.
  • Costs receipts and invoices filed as incurred, not reconstructed at the end.

Phase 3 — At judgment

  • Prevailing-party status confirmed — a judicially sanctioned material alteration of the legal relationship (judgment or consent decree), per Buckhannon, 532 U.S. 598 (2001). Private settlement alone generally does not suffice.
  • Statutory trigger re-read (some, like ERISA's, require only "some degree of success" — Hardt, 560 U.S. 242 (2010)).
  • Fee motion deadline calendared — Rule 54(d)(2) generally 14 days after entry of judgment.
  • Bill of costs deadline calendared — commonly 14 days; check local rules.
  • Any Rule 68 offer located and the comparison run — under Marek v. Chesny, 473 U.S. 1 (1985), post-offer fees shift where the statute defines fees as costs.
  • Separate motions planned for prejudgment interest, costs, and fees.
  • Judge's standing orders checked for page limits, format, and any pre-filing conference requirement.

Phase 4 — Building the petition

  • Motion (short: statute, status, amount).
  • Memorandum: entitlement · lodestar · rates · hours · billing judgment · apportionment · enhancement (if any) · fees on fees.
  • Lead counsel declaration (see Phase 6).
  • Independent practitioner declarations on the market rate.
  • Time records, organized, with privilege handled (see Phase 8).
  • Summary exhibits: by timekeeper · by phase · by task category · by claim.
  • Proposed order.
  • Every number in the memorandum ties to a number in an exhibit.

Phase 5 — Rate evidence

  • Prevailing market rate proved for the relevant community (usually the forum district), per Blum v. Stenson, 465 U.S. 886 (1984).
  • Practitioner declarations: same market, same practice area, declarant's own rate stated.
  • Prior fee awards from this court, ideally within 24 months.
  • Rate survey or district fee matrix attached.
  • Evidence of rates actually paid by paying clients, where available.
  • Out-of-district counsel justified (local expertise unavailable, or a national specialty).
  • Current versus historic rates: one method requested explicitly, with a delay-compensation rationale.
  • Non-profit or legal aid counsel claiming market rates, not cost.

Phase 6 — The lead counsel declaration

  • Engagement terms and fee arrangement disclosed.
  • Every timekeeper: name, role, admission year, experience, rate.
  • Timekeeping system and practice described (contemporaneous, by task, stated increment).
  • Work described by phase, two sentences each.
  • Results obtained stated — monetary, non-monetary, and any broader effect.
  • Billing judgment itemized by category, with hours and dollars.
  • Apportionment analysis stated.
  • Exhibits authenticated.
  • No argument, no adjectives, no characterizations of opposing counsel.

Phase 7 — Hours and billing judgment

  • Raw lodestar computed and shown.
  • Voluntary reductions applied and quantified before filing:
    • Clerical time removed
    • Duplicative attendance removed
    • Travel at half rate (or as local practice requires)
    • Vague entries removed rather than defended
    • Excessive entries trimmed
  • Adjusted lodestar stated with hours and dollars.
  • Unusually large single entries explained affirmatively in the memorandum.
  • No reconstructed time — or, if unavoidable, disclosed as such.

Phase 8 — Privilege in the records

  • Approach chosen deliberately: narrow redaction with a log · in camera submission with redacted service copies · full production under a protective order.
  • Redactions surgical enough that the court can still review what was done.
  • Any in camera request made in advance, not at filing.
  • Related pending litigation considered before producing in full.

Phase 9 — Apportionment and degree of success

  • Claims sorted: related (common core of facts or related legal theories) versus distinct.
  • Hours attributable solely to distinct unsuccessful claims tabled and removed affirmatively (the but-for standard of Fox v. Vice, 563 U.S. 826 (2011)).
  • For related claims, argument focused on overall relief obtained per Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424 (1983), not a claim count.
  • Degree of success addressed head-on: amount sought versus recovered, non-monetary relief, public benefit.
  • Farrar v. Hobby, 506 U.S. 103 (1992) distinguished where the recovery was small.

Phase 10 — Enhancement (usually: don't)

Phase 11 — Fees on fees, and the bill of costs

  • Petition-preparation time recorded separately and claimed.
  • Taxable costs limited to the 28 U.S.C. § 1920 list:
    • Clerk and marshal fees
    • Transcripts necessarily obtained for use in the case
    • Printing and witness fees
    • Exemplification and copies necessarily obtained for use in the case
    • Docket fees under § 1923
    • Court-appointed experts and interpreters
  • Not claimed (absent a statute providing otherwise): retained expert fees beyond the attendance fee · legal research charges · travel and lodging · mediation fees · postage and courier · e-discovery processing and hosting.
  • Invoices attached for every item.
  • "Necessarily obtained for use in the case" stated and explained for each transcript and copying charge.

PART TWO — THE OPPOSITION

Phase 12 — Threshold

  • Is the applicant a prevailing party at all? (Buckhannon; mootness; voluntary compliance.)
  • Does the statute's trigger actually apply?
  • If the applicant is a defendant under a civil rights statute: can it meet the frivolous/unreasonable/without-foundation standard of Christiansburg Garment Co. v. EEOC, 434 U.S. 412 (1978)? (Losing ≠ frivolous.)
  • Was the motion timely?
  • Was the fee claim pleaded where the jurisdiction requires it?

Phase 13 — Pick three targets and document them

  • The rate. Local practitioner declarations · prior awards from this court · rate survey. Show what this court has approved.
  • Identifiable blocks of unnecessary time. Specific, with entries attached ("34.6 hours on a three-page unopposed motion to compel"), not adjectives.
  • Apportionment. A table: entry · date · hours · claim · why exclusively attributable.

Phase 14 — Structural attacks, where supported

  • Block billing — quantify affected entries as a percentage; request a proportionate cut.
  • Clerical work at professional rates — list the entries.
  • Overstaffing — count timekeepers per event.
  • Vague entries — quote them.
  • Post-offer fees where an offer of judgment was rejected.
  • No voluntary billing judgment — a 100% claim invites skepticism; say so.
  • Enhancement request foreclosed by Dague or unsupported under Perdue.
  • Reconstructed time.

Phase 15 — Arguments that do not work

  • The fee exceeds the damages. Proportionality is not required under fee-shifting statutes.
  • Counsel took the case on contingency, so there is no fee to shift.
  • The claim lost, therefore it was frivolous. The post hoc trap Christiansburg warns against.
  • Disputing 900 line items. Fox v. Vice: courts "need not, and indeed should not, become green-eyeshade accountants."

PART THREE — SANCTIONS AND SETTLEMENT

Phase 16 — Sanctions-based fee claims

  • Rule 11: motion served, 21-day safe harbor observed, filed only if the paper was not withdrawn. (The most common fatal defect.)
  • 28 U.S.C. § 1927: conduct that multiplied proceedings unreasonably and vexatiously; personal liability of counsel; excess costs identified.
  • Inherent authority: bad faith established (Chambers v. NASCO, 501 U.S. 32 (1991)); award compensatory, not punitive, and limited to fees incurred solely because of the misconduct, with a causal link per dollar (Goodyear v. Haeger, 581 U.S. 101 (2017)).
  • Causation table built before filing.

Phase 17 — Settling the fee claim

  • Structure chosen: fees negotiated into the merits settlement · merits first, fee petition reserved · lump sum inclusive of fees.
  • After Buckhannon, fees expressly provided for, or a consent decree obtained.
  • Conflict disclosed in writing where the offer is fee-inclusive or conditioned on a fee waiver; client's decision documented.
  • Engagement letter already addressed how such offers are handled.
  • Appellate fee motion calendared separately when the mandate issues.

Related documents

This checklist is educational and not legal advice. Fee motion deadlines, pleading requirements, cost taxation, and enhancement standards vary between the federal courts and the states and among the states. Confirm every item against the applicable rule and the assigned judge's standing orders.