United States: In Longshore Decision, No Abuse of Discretion in Adjusting Attorney’s Fees by National Consumer Price Index

With regard to a claim filed under the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act (the Act), the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals , in a decision not designated for publication, held that it was within the discretion of the Benefits Review Board and the District Director to use the national Consumer Price Index (CPI) to adjust the baseline hourly rates for attorney’s fees, instead of the CPI for the more specific, Portland-Salem (Oregon) area, where the attorney’s services were rendered. Nor was it an abuse of discretion to deny a “delay enhancement” for a two-year period (2012-2014). Such an increase is not required for services rendered when the BRB decides that the delay was not “long enough to merit augmentation.”

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Hardman v. Marine Terminals Corp., 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 32683 (9th Cir., Nov. 19, 2018)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 133.03.

Source:Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law