Judge Sanctions Plaintiffs Lawyer $25K for Unsupported Fee Applications

A federal judge has sanctioned a San Francisco plaintiffs lawyer $25,000 for filing fee requests that weren’t supported by time records.

Judge Susan Illston imposed the sanction against lawyer Waukeen McCoy and refused his request for more than $2 million in fees in discrimination litigation against FedEx, the Recorder reports. Ilston said most of McCoy’s fee petitions weren’t based on contemporaneous billing records, despite his assertions to the contrary.

A special master had recommended the sanction, saying McCoy created billing records after the fact and misrepresented the nature of documents.

McCoy called the ruling “arbitrary, capricious and contrary to law.”

“As a civil rights attorney fighting many billion-dollar corporations and powerful conglomerates, attacks on my character are to be expected," he told the Recorder.