$48,000 in Attorney Fees Awarded in Prisoner-Injury Civil Action          

by David Reutter

On November 18, 2013, a Colorado federal district court awarded more than $48,000 in attorney fees in a civil rights action involving a prisoner being injured after an accident involving the prison van that was transporting him.

Sterling Correctional Institution prisoner Glenn H. Kemp was injured in February 2008 when the prison van he was riding in crashed with another vehicle. A jury awarded $1 in nominal damages and a $100 in punitive damages against guards Christopher Wave and Tracy Tarver. He was also awarded $30,000 in actual damages against Beverly Davis for deliberate indifference to Kemp’s serious medical needs.

Following the verdict, Kemp’s attorney, Brett Campiasi, filed a motion seeking $169,657.30 in attorney’s fees. The court found he was entitled to an award and then considered his hourly rate and the hours of service compensable.

Campiasi sought $325 per hour, but the court was bound by the hourly rate set by the Judicial Conference for the Tenth Circuit, a rate of $125 per hour. Under the PLRA, prison litigation attorney fee awards are set at 150 percent of that hourly rate, increasing the amount permissible to $187.50 per hour.

The court then reduced his submitted 522 hours to 470 hours, eliminating block billing hours, including unsuccessful claims work. After these reductions, the fee amount totaled $76,963.50. But, the court further limited the award under PLRA provisions that limit an attorney fee award to 150 percent of the jury award.

As the jury award, in this case, was $32,002, the attorney fee award was capped at $48,003. Finally, the court applied the PLRA provision stating that up to 25 percent of the monetary judgment “shall be applied to satisfy the amount of the attorney’s fees awarded against the defendant.” The court, however, applied five percent of the judgment to the attorney fee award, requiring $1,600.10 of the award be applied to the $48,003 fee award. See: Kemp v. Webster, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 163715 (D. Colo. Nov. 18, 2013).

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