DOUGLAS O. TICE, JR., United States Bankruptcy Court.
Hearing was held on March 7, 2001, on debtors counsel's supplemental fee application. Counsel for debtors filed the application on February 12, 2001, requesting $1,200.00 in additional legal fees beyond the $1,120.00 in previously contracted fees and costs. No objections were filed to the supplemental fee application. At the conclusion of the hearing, the court took the application under advisement.
For reasons set forth below, the court finds it necessary to reduce the award of additional fees and costs to counsel for debtors under the supplemental fee application by $300.00; counsel's total additional fees requested of $1,200.00 will be reduced to a supplemental award of $900.00.
When counsel seeks an award of additional fees, the court expects counsel to demonstrate that the total fee requested is reasonable in light of all surrounding circumstances. See In re Harris, No. 96-36765-T, 1998 WL 408896, at *2 (Bankr.E.D.Va. Apr. 14, 1998); see 11 U.S.C. § 330(a)(3) and (a)(4)(B). Further, even absent objections, "the court has a duty to review professional compensation awards for reasonableness." In re Harris, 1998 WL 408896, at *1. In the final analysis of a supplemental fee application, the "total fee still must pass muster under the standards for determination of reasonable compensation." Id. at *2. The court's reasonableness evaluation takes into consideration twelve factors:
(1) the time and labor expended; (2) the novelty and difficulty of the question raised; (3) the skill required to properly perform the legal services rendered; (4) the attorney's opportunity costs in pressing the instant litigation; (5) the customary fee for like work; (6) the attorney's expectations at the outset of the litigation; (7) the time limitations imposed by the client or circumstances; (8) the amount in controversy and the results obtained; (9) the experience, reputation and ability of the attorney; (10) the undesirability of the case within the legal community in which the suit arose; (11) the nature and length of the professional relationship between attorney and client; and (12) attorney's fees awards in similar cases.
Id. at *3 n. 1.
Ordinarily, the flat fee charged for debtor representation in a chapter 13 bankruptcy such as this case, should cover such services as "interviews with the client, contacting creditors . . . and verifying other information for the statements and schedules, preparation of [the] petition, schedules and a confirmable plan, attendance at the § 341 meeting of creditors, and . . . attendance to other more routine matters encountered in the case." Id. at *1. In addition, in those instances when problems can be anticipated by counsel, the flat fee charged for legal services in the first instance should encompass such predictable services.
In this supplemental fee application, debtors' counsel itemized additional services relating to a wage order, new employment information, address change for debtor, case operation and plan funding analysis, chapter 13 trustee's motion to dismiss, surrender of a 1990 Ford Probe to National Auto Credit/ Ramsey Dismuke, and plan modification. After review of counsel's fee application and supporting time detail, the court has determined that there is routine work associated with representation of chapter 13 debtors that must be deducted from the additional hours billed in this supplemental fee application. Tasks associated with the routine, easily anticipated administration of a chapter 13 case and the related representation of debtors, such as processing wage orders, address changes, analyzing plan funding and viability, reviewing court files, and conducting conferences with the client do not rise to the level sufficient to warrant compensation beyond the amount for which counsel and client originally contracted. Thus, the court finds it necessary to reduce the award of additional fees and costs to counsel for debtors under the supplemental fee application by $300.00; counsel's total additional fees of $1,200.00 will be reduced to a supplemental award of $900.00.
However, additional, non-routine legal services may warrant an award of supplemental compensation. For example, additional services usually relate to a client's ongoing financial problems, and most frequently involve objections to confirmation of debtor's plan and creditors' motions for relief from stay. Here, there was the chapter 13 trustee's motion to dismiss and a vehicle surrender that appropriately fall within the category of "additional services." The court finds the additional fees billed for this motion to dismiss, vehicle surrender, and subsequent plan modification to be reasonable, unobjectionable, and deems the additional charges associated with these specific tasks to be warranted.
Accordingly,
IT IS ORDERED that counsel for debtors is entitled to an award of supplemental fees and costs in the reduced total amount of $900.00.