Smith v. Freeman’s Empirical Analysis
921 F.2d 1120 · 1990
Citation profile
29 federal appellate · 13 district · 9 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 71 later decisions — most recently July 2025 · most notably Gates, King v. Palmer (1991)
29 federal appellate · 13 district · 9 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 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act)) · 42 U.S.C. § 1988
Relies on Hensley v. Eckerhart · Blum v. Stenson · Missouri v. Jenkins Ex Rel. Agyei · Pennsylvania v. Delaware Valley Citizens' Council for Clean Air · Copeland v. Marshall
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 71 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“At the outset, we note that “[t]he establishment of hourly rates in awarding attorneys’ fees is within the discretion of the trial judge who is familiar with the case and the prevailing rates' in the area.” Lucero v. City of Trinidad, 815 F.2d 1384, 1385 (10th Cir.1987) (quoting Gurule v. Wilson, 635 F.2d 782, 794 (10th Cir.1980)). The burden is on the fee applicant to establish the reasonableness of the attorney fee award under § 1988. Lucero v. City of Trinidad, 815 F.2d at 1385 . And the district court must “provide a concise but clear explanation of its reasons for the fee award.” Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424, 437 , 103 S.Ct. 1933, 1941 , 76 L.Ed.2d 40 (1983); Ramos v. Lamm, 713 F.2d 546, 552 (10th Cir.1983). In our role as a court of review, we will overturn the district court award “only if it represents an abuse of discretion.” Mares v. Credit Bur. of Raton, 801 F.2d 1197, 1201 (10th Cir.1986).”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“request for attorney's fees should not result in a second major litigation.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“enhancement for the risk of nonpayment should be reserved for exceptional cases”
3 later decisions 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.