NELSON LA FEMINA v. PLATSKY, 745 So.2d 1057 (Fla.App. 3 Dist. 1999)

NELSON LA FEMINA, P.A., Appellant, vs. GUARDIANSHIP OF BERTHA PLATSKY, etc., Appellee.

No. 98-3423.District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.
Opinion filed November 3, 1999.

An Appeal from the Circuit Court for Dade County, Maria M. Korvick, Judge; L.T. No. 94-3025.

Nelson LaFemina and Marcia E. Levine, for appellant,

No appearance for appellee.

Before SCHWARTZ, C.J., and LEVY and FLETCHER, JJ.

SCHWARTZ, Chief Judge.

The ruling of the trial judge in reducing a plainly excessive but otherwise uncontested claim to fees and costs for services by the attorneys for a guardianship estate was fully in accordance with the probate court’s right and duty to protect the interests of the ward. See § 744.108, Fla. Stat. (1999); McGinnis v. Kanevsky, 564 So.2d 1141, 1143 n. 7 (Fla. 3d DCA 1990); Ash v. Coconut Grove Bank, 448 So.2d 605 (Fla. 3d DCA 1984). The attorneys asked for $20,412.50 in fees[1] and $396.51 in costs for ten months of routine paperwork in an estate which, at the time of the application and largely because it had already been reduced by $23,000.00 previously awarded in fees and costs, amounted to $60,000.00. In the ruling which the lawyers have now summoned the gall to appeal, the court awarded an additional amount of “only” $10,000.00. Such an order should not only be approved, but commended, encouraged, and replicated.

Affirmed.

[1] This sum represented an alleged 85.10 hours of attorney time at $175.00 per hour and 73.60 hours of paralegal time at $75.00 per hour. See generally Miller v. First American Bank
Trust, 607 So.2d 483 (Fla. 4th DCA 1992).

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