JCC Awards Contested Attorney Fee After Applying Lee Engineering Factors

In Carlos Palacios Albornoz v. Crowther Roofing & Cooling/National Union Fire Insurance Co. of Pittsburgh, PA, OJCC Case No. 25-027129JAW, Judge Jack A. Weiss addressed the amount of an employer/carrier-paid claimant attorney fee after the parties resolved indemnity and medical benefits worth $22,540.90.

The claimant sought $55,000.00 based on 114.7 attorney hours at $479.51 per hour. The employer/carrier stipulated to entitlement but argued that a reasonable fee was $19,067.50, challenging portions of the claimed time as excessive, vague, clerical, paralegal, or otherwise not reasonably chargeable as attorney time.

Applying Castellanos, Murray, Lee Engineering, and Rule 4-1.5 factors, the JCC rejected many of the employer/carrier objections but excluded 27.1 clerical hours and 17.8 paralegal hours from the attorney-time calculation. The order found 69.8 attorney hours reasonable at a blended $375.00 hourly rate and awarded $26,175.00 in attorney fees plus $5,146.09 in taxable costs.

Source: Attorney Fee Order