616 F. Supp. 1069 - Spell v. McDaniel’s Empirical Analysis
1985
Citation profile
12 federal appellate · 2 district · 1 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 35 later decisions — most recently August 2004 · most notably Spell v. McDaniel (1987), Napier v. Thirty or More Unidentified Federal Agents, Employees or Officers (1988)
12 federal appellate · 2 district · 1 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 1920 · 28 U.S.C. § 1961 · 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act)) · 42 U.S.C. § 1988
Relies on Monell v. Department of Social Services of City of New York · Hensley v. Eckerhart · Parratt v. Taylor · Alyeska Pipeline Service Company v. Wilderness Society · Blum v. Stenson
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 35 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“typical” work conducted by attorneys in North Carolina, based on their geographical location, firm size and date of admission to the bar, without regard to the type of work performed or the skill required to perform it. 5 . In performing this task, the court finds that it has recently devoted an increasingly inordinate amount of time to determining fee petitions, in part because trial courts are required to “climb the twelve rungs of [Johnson]”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““Although it is not necessary to know “the exact number of minutes spent nor the precise activity to which each hour was devoted,” the fee application must contain sufficient detail to permit the court and opposing counsel to conduct an informed appraisal of the merits of the application [emphasis added].””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent“has considerable discretion to take into account its experience in setting market value rates in prior fee cases, its general knowledge of the fees charged by attorneys in the area, its experience in the practice of law prior to assuming the bench and its familiarity with counsel’s performance in the case.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.