Sundance Media Group, LLC v. Yuneec USA, INC

Opinion

3 SUNDANCE MEDIA GROUP, LLC, Case No.: 2:18-cv-00388-APG-BNW

4 Plaintiff Order Requiring Defendant to Produce Redacted Invoices 5 v.

7 Defendant

8 Defendant Yuneec USA, Inc. moves for an award of its attorneys’ fees and costs. ECF 9 No. 78. I intend to grant that request in some amount. But Yuneec has denied plaintiff 10 Sundance Media Group, LLC a meaningful opportunity to review the fee request because 11 Yuneec provided Sundance heavily redacted invoices. I thus defer ruling on the motion until 12 Yuneec revises its redactions. 13 Yuneec attached to its fee motion redacted copies of its counsel’s invoices. The 14 redactions delete all descriptions of the work performed for every time entry. Although Yuneec 15 submitted unredacted versions for in camera review, it gave Sundance only the redacted 16 versions. Thus it is impossible for Sundance to evaluate whether the work performed and hours 17 charged were reasonable. Redacting time entries is appropriate to protect an attorney’s work 18 product and to preserve an attorney-client privileged communication. But when a party seeks to 19 recover fees, it must disclose enough information for the court and opposing party to evaluate the 20 propriety of the request. United States ex rel. Cretney-Tsosie v. Creekside Hospice II, LLC, No. 21 2:13-cv-00167-APG-PAL, 2018 WL 4409367, at *4 (D. Nev. Sept. 17, 2018). 22 Having reviewed Yuneec’s unredacted invoices, I find that few of Yuneec’s time entries 23 should be redacted. Entries such as “engage in meet and confer conference with opposing 1}}counsel” and “review complaint to determine what media was subject to the copyright claim” do not reveal privileged communications or work product. Proper redactions might say “confer with client about [REDACTED]” or “research and analyze caselaw in support of [REDACTED].” Yuneec’s redactions make it impossible for Sundance to evaluate and object to Yuneec’s fee request. I thus will require Yuneec to provide Sundance revised redactions that disclose more detail about its counsel’s time entries. I also will allow Sundance to file a supplemental objection, if it has any, limited to the specifics of the time entries. 8 I THEREFORE ORDER defendant Yuneec USA, Inc. to file and serve upon plaintiff 9 Sundance revised redactions to its invoices by January 15, 2021. After Sundance has had a 10] reasonable time to review those invoices, the parties shall confer to attempt to reach an agreement on an appropriate fee award. Sundance may file an objection to the fee request— 12 limited solely to the time entries—within 14 days of receipt of the revised redactions. Yuneec may reply to that objection within 14 days of the filing of the objection. 14 DATED this 29th day of December, 2020. 15 UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

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