Apple Inc.(NASDAQ:AAPL) & Samsung legal fees reduced by magistrate judge

Good news filters for both the Silicon Valley giants and rival. The legal fees for both Apple Inc.(NASDAQ:AAPL) Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. have been cut by the Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal of the US District Court of the Northern District of California.

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The fees have been sliced to $21,554 for Samsung and Apple Inc. has been ordered to pay $160,069 to Samsung over discovery violations in the smartphone patent suit concluded in August. The legal fee for both the parties has been slashed and is considerably less than either of the parties have requested. Samsung's award was based on Apple's endeavour to force the manufacturer to turn over declaration testimony.

The U.S. Magistrate Judge Grewal raised question to both overstaffing, and "block billing that failed to detail how attorneys spent the time they billed. When claimed by one of the Quinn Emanuel associate that he has spend 93.5 hours for "assistance with all aspects of the preparation" of Samsung's case and billed the same, Grewal was perplexed in regards to the claim. Further in examining 50 hours of work billed at $1,035 per hour by partner Marc Becker, Grewal wrote that "the court tends to find it unreasonable that a partner with almost 25 years of experience needed 50 hours to draft a 14-page motion and to review a 15-page reply, especially when five associates also billed 85.8 hours for the same motion.".

He thus applied the rates according to the general consensus and slashed the highest rate from a Quinn Emanual associate from $620 down to $470. Not only this, Grewal also reduced the fees for Apple Inc by 20 percent from its claim stating that it is excessive. In addition to this, he denied that the attorney being paid any fees for sealing motions, and "refuses to incentivize more sealing actions" by allowing the fees to be charged.