In Chen v. Dougherty [pdf], No. C04-987 (W.D. Wash. 2009), U.S. District Court Judge Marsha Pechman granted, in part, the plaintiff’s motion for attorneys’ fees as the prevailing party at trial, but reduced the plaintiffs’ counsel’s hourly rate due to counsel’s inexperience handling electronic discovery disputes.

In this employment and civil rights litigation, the plaintiffs alleged retaliation after raising concerns about the use of certain methodologies and practices regarding the defendant’s traffic decisions.  While many of the plaintiffs’ claims were dismissed on summary judgment, the plaintiffs prevailed on their remaining claims at trial.  The court granted the plaintiffs’ request for attorneys’ fees as the prevailing party, but held that the plaintiffs’ counsel could not recover her normal hourly rate for her time spent dealing with electronic discovery issues.  The court ruled that the plaintiffs’ counsel contributed to the delay and prolonged discovery disputes in part, by failing to offer search terms for the delivery of relevant electronic information.  The court reduced her hourly rate to $200 an hour given her “novice skills in this area”; thus refusing to permit her to “command the rate of experienced counsel.”