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Ninth Circuit Issues Very Plaintiff-Friendly Section 1988 Case

This opinion is pure gold for plaintiffs civil rights lawyers seeking fees under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1988.  Among many great lines is this: By and large, the court should defer to the winning lawyer?s professional judgment as to how much time he was required to spend on the case; after all, he won, and might not have, had he been more of a slacker.Moreno v. City of Sacramento, No. 06-15021 (9th Cir. July 28, 2008) (opinion).  There really is a lot of good stuff in there (including an instruction that district courts must raise billing rates as market conditions change), and anyone who writes fee motions would be prudent to read it.

Full post as published by Crime & Federalism on July 28, 2008 (boomark / email).