Berliner v. Pappalardo’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 federal appellate · 7 district ·

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 26 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[u]nder the lodestar method, a court determines a fee award by multiplying the number of hours productively spent by a reasonable hourly rate to calculate a base figure. When computing the number of hours productively spent, the court should discount time spent on unnecessary, duplicative, or overworked tasks.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. In re Puffer · Little

2. “[t]here is no requirement that a bankruptcy court, in explaining a fee award, be precise to the point of pedantry. Instead, the explanation need only be sufficiently detailed to allow a reviewing court to ascertain the trial court’s thought processes and glean the basis for its award. See Torres-Rivera [v. O’Neill-Cancel], 524 F.3d [331,] at 340 (1st Cir.2008) (upholding reduction in fee award where lower court provided a plausible rationale for its decision).”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Bates v. CitiMortgage, Inc. · In re Schold

3. “[T]he lodestar method, which is designed to ‘provide[ ] a flexible paradigm [is] not meant to bind the nisi prius court to any single way of calculating the number of hours reasonably expended.’ Weinberger v. Great N. Nekoosa Corp., 925 F.2d 518, 526-27 (1st Cir.1991) (quoting United States v. Metro. Dist. Comm’n, 847 F.2d 12, 16 (1st Cir.1988)). Given the nature of this paradigm, a bankruptcy court need not march mechanically through a checklist of the section 380 factors when fashioning a fee award. See Metro. Dist. Comm’n, 847 F.2d at 15 (warning that mechanical approaches to fee awards ‘sacrifice substance on the altar of form’); see also In re Thirteen Appeals Arising Out of San Juan Dupont Plaza Hotel Fire Litig., 56 F.3d 295, 308 (1st Cir.1995) (stating that lodestar method should not ‘be applied in a formulaic or mechanical fashion’ (internal quotation marks omitted)). Rather, it suffices if the court makes a fee calculation that takes the section 330 factors fairly into account.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. In re Puffer