Missouri v. Jenkins 491 U.S. 274 (1989)

Questions about the Case

1. Do you agree that the language of the statute "[c]learly . . . cannot have been meant to compensate only work performed by members of the bar"? Is the Court's reasoning on this point persuasive?
2. Why does the Court hold that attorney's fees generally should be calculated according to prevailing market rates?
3. Do you agree with the Court that attorneys should be able to make a profit from their paralegals' work in cases like this? Why or why not?
4. Do you agree with the Court's comment in footnote 9 about the "discipline of the market"? Why or why not?
5. What is the most convincing argument that the Court makes for using market rates to calculate paralegal fees awards?
6. What does the Court say about the nature of paralegal work that can be compensated in fee awards? Do you think that time spent numbering documents should be compensated as paralegal time? What about organizing documents? Summarizing depositions? Inputting data into a computer?
7. Summarize the points made by the dissent. Do you think any of them are valid?