836.3 Procedures used in determining fees

Ideally, an attorney’s fee affidavit should contain some information from which the Administrative Law Judge can determine what types of fees are customarily charged in the locality by lawyers of reasonably comparable skill, experience and reputation. Anderson v. MRM Elgin (LIRC, 01/28/04).

Attorneys must maintain billing time records that are sufficiently detailed to enable a review of the reasonableness of the hours expended. It is not required that each minute be described in great detail, but counsel should at least identify the general subject matter of the time expenditures. Moore v. Cedar Grove-Belgium Sch. Dist. (LIRC, 04/29/92).

A hearing on attorney's fees is not necessary. MMFHC v. South Side Spirit (LIRC, 08/26/92).

Carefully reconstructed time records can be used as proof of time expended if contemporaneous time records are not available. Racine Educ. Ass’n v. Racine Unified Sch. Dist. (LIRC, 07/17/89).

Where counsel for the Complainant submitted a sworn affidavit attesting to the accuracy of the pages of attached information detailing the dates, description of work performed, and time spent to the nearest tenth of an hour, and where the detail thus provided was adequate to allow a reasonable evaluation of the fee request, the Respondent was denied the opportunity to have access to the Complainant’s counsel’s original time entries and law office accounts payable ledgers and to have an opportunity to cross-examine the Complainant’s counsel at a hearing concerning the attorney fee petition. Eklund v. Tomah-Mauston Broad. Co. (LIRC, 09/19/86).