Pending before the Court is the Plaintiffs' motion for an order directing the  Defendants to pay the Plaintiffs $29,531 in attorney's fees and $937.07 in costs and expenses that Plaintiffs say they incurred in this action.  In the main, the Court is granting the Plaintiffs' motion.

As a threshold matter, the Plaintiffs are entitled to an award of reasonable attorney's fees and costs under the settlement agreement between Plaintiffs and Defendants that resolved Plaintiffs' claims in this action.  The settlement agreement deems the Plaintiffs the "prevailing parties" in the action, and states that, as such, the Plaintiffs are entitled to file a motion to recover their attorney's fees and costs if the parties are unable to resolve the fees and costs issues.  Defendants' argument that the Plaintiffs are barred from seeking attorney's fees and costs because the Plaintiffs allegedly rejected inappropriately a "correction offer" under the Consumer Legal Remedies Act is foreclosed by the settlement agreement through which the Defendants consented to the Plaintiffs' filing of a motion to recover their reasonable attorney's fees and costs. 

Next, the hourly billing rates for the attorneys who performed work for the Plaintiffs in this action are reasonable.  Defendants' argument to the contrary misses the mark.

Defendants also are off base in all of their challenges to aspects of the billable time entries of Plaintiffs' attorneys attached to the Plaintiffs' motion except as to (A) all of the work of the attorneys on discovery requests that never were propounded on the Defendants, and (B) some of the work done by the lawyer who prepared the Plaintiffs' briefs in support of the motion for attorney's fees and costs.  The Court is disallowing recovery of attorney's fees in the amount of $980 that Plaintiffs are seeking in connection with the preparation of the discovery requests.  The Court is reducing the amount of attorney's fees that Plaintiffs are seeking in connection with the motion for fees and costs by $1,042.50 (1.5 hours of work on the reply brief and for attendance at the hearing on the motion multiplied, by the lawyer's hourly billing rate of $695.)  Factoring in the aforementioned disallowance and reduction, the amount of attorney's fees that the Court is awarding to Plaintiffs is $27,508.50.  The Court is awarding Plaintiffs the $937.07 in costs and expenses that they are seeking – an amount that the Defendants did not challenge.   Defendants are ordered to pay to Plaintiffs by November 25, 2024 the amount of fees and costs the Court is awarding.