In re Eborn
UNPUBLISHED
The matter before the court was an objection by debtor to the fee application filed by his former counsel, Sherri Flans Palmer. A fee application is a summary of detailed, contemporaneously maintained time records that is required from any attorney seeking fees before this court. Considering the disarray of the debtor's file, Palmer's egregious failure to comply with the statute and the standards of the court, Palmer's apparent lack of a cohesive billing system, and the potential adverse impact of these circumstances upon Palmer's clients and their creditors, the court determined that the application did not contain an accurate representation of time actually spent and, as a result, it was unable to determine if the time spent was reasonable, necessary, or beneficial to the estate. The court denied Palmer's fees and ordered Palmer (among other things) to file meticulous, contemporaneously maintained, and accurate time records in support of any fee applications submitted in pending or future cases, including cases in which Palmer sought fees of $900 or less.