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Andrus v. Lena3/26/1999
ulate the amount of attorney's fees.
E. It Was Error to Award Actual Paralegal Fees to Lena.
In the final judgment, the superior court stated that "plaintiff is awarded paralegal fees in the amount of $3,162," the actual amount of costs Lena requested. Andrus argues that the superior court erred in awarding actual paralegal fees. We agree.
Prior to the 1995 amendments to Rule 79 and Rule 82, actual paralegal expenses which were necessarily incurred were recoverable as costs under Rule 79(b). See, e.g., Rule 79 (1994); Yurioff v. American Honda Motor Co., 803 P.2d 386, 390-91 (Alaska 1990).
However, Rules 79 and 82 were amended, effective July 15, 1995. See Alaska Supreme Court Order No. 1200 (May 4, 1995). Rule 79(b) then specifically stated that " ees for investigators, paralegals or law clerks shall not be allowed as costs." In addition, subsections (b)(2) and (b)(4) of Rule 82 were amended to include these types of fees, but only in limited circumstances. When the prevailing party does not recover a money judgment, Rule 82(b)(2) allows him or her to recover either twenty or thirty percent of the reasonable actual attorney's fees which were necessarily incurred, including paralegal fees for "legal work customarily performed by an attorney." Similarly, Rule 82(b)(4), which allows partial recovery of fees when default judgment is entered, was also amended so that actual fees include legal work performed by a paralegal.
Lena argues, however, that these amendments did not overrule the line of cases which provided that actual paralegal fees could be recovered as costs "necessarily incurred" under Rule 79(b). He emphasizes that the Alaska Rules of Civil Procedure do not currently provide for a separate recovery of paralegal fees under Rule 82(b)(1) when a party recovers a money judgment. He argues that allowing full recovery of paralegal fees which were "necessarily incurred" would fill this void, asserting that it would be "senseless" to suggest that paralegal fees are only recoverable when a prevailing party recovers no monetary award or when there is a default judgment.
We reject this argument. The amendments were intended to remove paralegal fees from Rule 79, where the fees had been fully compensated, and provide for only partial compensation under Rule 82. Rule 82, as amended, leaves no void. Instead, under subsection (b)(1), attorney's fees are only recovered at a certain percentage rate of the monetary recovery. The schedule in subsection (b)(1) is intended to partially compensate for attorney's fees -- whether actually performed by the attorney or delegated to a paralegal, law clerk, or investigator. The other sections provide for partial awards of attorney's fees, including paralegal fees, when this schedule does not apply. We thus hold that the superior court erred in awarding actual paralegal fees in addition to the attorney's fees calculated under Rule 82(b)(1).
IV. CONCLUSION
We VACATE the award of Civil Rule 68 interest, the attorney's fee award, and the award of actual paralegal fees, and REMAND to the superior court for proceedings consistent with this opinion. We AFFIRM the superior court's finding that Lena was the prevailing party.
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