UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY COURT

EASTERN DISTRICT OF KENTUCKY

LEXINGTON DIVISION

IN RE:

ROBERTA SMOODIN

DEBTOR                                                                               CASE NO. 07-50176

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

           This matter is before the court on the Application for Attorney for Debtor for Additional Compensation (“the Application”) filed herein on October 13, 2008. The Chapter 13 Trustee filed a Limited Objection to Application for Compensation (“the Objection”) on November 2, 2008, and the Debtor filed a Response on November 4, 2008. The Application seeks $1,625.00 in additional fees incurred in regard to the Debtor’s successful opposition to the Trustee’s Motion to Dismiss.

           The Trustee disputes the reasonableness of the billed rate of $250.00 per hour. Specifically, the Trustee contends that this rate is excessive in regard to certain services which she maintains are essentially clerical in nature. These services include reviewing account information and preparing and filing documents with the court. The Trustee also objects to compensation for travel from counsel’s office to the court and back again, and for a half-hour of hearing time for this matter. The Trustee maintains that counsel for the Debtor appeared in numerous cases on the September 4, 2008 Chapter 13 docket, and that the hearing in this particular matter did not take a half-hour.

           The court believes that $250.00 per hour is a reasonable rate of compensation for experienced bankruptcy counsel who has continuously demonstrated efficient and effective use of his time in his applications before this court. That hourly rate might be excessive for attorneys who make less effective use of their billable hour. Counsel has regularly taken a case through confirmation with eight to ten billable hours while many other attorneys require twice that amount of time to accomplish the same result. Further, while certain tasks billed for may be more clerical than legal in nature, it would probably be more expensive to the client for counsel to have a paralegal on staff to do them than to perform the work himself in a relatively short period of time, as was done here. The court does agree with the Trustee that travel to and from one’s local office is not compensable, and that the time spent on the hearing on the motion to dismiss was considerably less than a half-hour. The court will therefore deny compensation in the amount of $200.00 (.8 hours x $250.00), and award additional fees in the amount of $1425.00.

           It is so ordered.

Copies to:

Ryan A. Atkinson, Esq.

Beverly M. Burden, Esq., Trustee