Reading Room Document

Payment of Attorney's Fees in Litigation Involving Successful Challenges to Federal Agency Action Arising Under the Administrative Procedure Act and the Citizen-Suit Provisions of the Endangered Species Act

For purposes of settling attorney's fees claims in a case arising under both section 10 of the Administrative Procedure Act and the citizen-suit provisions of the Endangered Species Act, federal litigators, in allocating hours and costs between the APA-Equal Access to Justice Act and ESA claims, should subordinate EAJA section 2412(d) to ESA section 11(g)(4). Under this approach, hours and costs necessary to both counts should be assigned to the ESA claim for attorney's fees purposes, leaving only the hours and costs necessary only to the APA claim to be paid under EAJA. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at www.justice.gov/file/19316/download.

November 27, 2000