UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY COURT

EASTERN DISTRICT OF KENTUCKY

COVINGTON DIVISION

IN RE:

BEVERLY EUGENE SOUTH

DONNA SUE SOUTH CASE NO. 97-21718

DEBTORS

OPINION AND ORDER

This matter is before the Court upon the Application for Allowance of Compensation filed herein by the attorney for the debtors in this Chapter 13 proceeding. The plan has been confirmed, and while the trustee initially objected to the attorney fees requested by debtors= counsel herein, that objection was withdrawn on March 6, 1998 after the Chapter 13 trustee reviewed the record and determined that the claims to be paid or filed were smaller than had originally been anticipated.

The attorney=s fees requested in this proceeding are $1,500 of which $140 has been paid by the debtors, leaving a balance requested of $1,360. The attorney has attached a statement of services rendered which, using an hourly rate of $75 per hour indicates that, based upon the time expended, attorney fees would be $2,137.50. The reason for fees in that amount appears to be the debtors unsuccessful attempt to object to the claim of Commercial Credit Corporation in these proceedings.

Applying a Lodestar analysis herein, the Court finds that the case is not one of extraordinary difficulty, the attorney for the debtors has expended 28.5 hours in the within proceedings, and that the hourly rate of $75 per hour is reasonable; that while the Court does not doubt that the time listed was in fact expended on behalf of the debtors, the results obtained are not of an extraordinary nature and much of the time involved was spent in a cause that was, ultimately, lost. For those reasons, the Court will adjust downward the fees to be allowed in this case from those requested. It appears that approximately 16 hours would be adequate to practice the case herein, and when multiplied by the hourly rate of $75 per hour would yield an attorney fee of $1,200. The record reflects that $300 has been paid by the debtors to their attorney, yielding a net attorney fee due of $900.

For the foregoing reasons, it is hereby ordered that the attorney for the debtors be allowed attorney=s fees in the gross sum of $1,200 to be credited by $300 already paid by the debtors herein, and the trustee is directed to pay to the attorney for the debtors from the funds in his hands the sum of $900 in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 13 of the United States Bankruptcy Code.

Dated this _____ day of April, 1998.

BY THE COURT

 

______________________________

JUDGE

 

COPIES TO:

Debtors

Peter B. Coughlan, Esq.

Sidney N. White, Esq.