Case Detail

FOIA Project Annotation: A federal court in Minnesota has ruled that Nico Ratkowski, an attorney at the immigration law firm of Contreras & Metelska, is not entitled to attorney's fees for his FOIA suit against the Executive Office for Immigration Review for records concerning a federation agreement between EOIR and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement pertaining to the scheduling of immigration hearings. After seeing an announcement from the American Immigration Lawyers Association indicating that the Department of Homeland Security was moving to a new computer scheduling system for immigration hearings, which included a reference to an EOIR-ICE federation agreement allowing ICE personnel to use a single sign-on, Ratkowski submitted a FOIA request in December 2019 to EOIR for the federation agreement. EOIR told Ratkowski that his request qualified for unusual circumstances and referred his request to the Justice Management Division, which coordinated with ICE to locate the federation agreement. The entire process was also complicated by the pandemic. JMD disclosed a redacted version of the federation agreement in June 2020. Ratkowski then filed a motion for attorney's fees, arguing that his suit caused the agency to respond more quickly. The court disagreed, noting that "while Defendants provided the responsive document after the filing of this lawsuit, that fact alone fails to show that Plaintiff's lawsuit substantially caused Defendants to provide the document. While Plaintiff speculates about ICE's 'hasty' response once litigation commenced, and the timing of DOJ's workplace response to the COVID-19 pandemic, by every indication, Defendants were diligently attempting to Plaintiff's request under challenging circumstances."
Issues: Litigation - Attorney's fees - Eligibility - Causal effect

Date Filed	Doc #	Docket Text
2020-05-27	1	COMPLAINT against Executive Office for Immigration Review, U.S. Department of Justice (filing fee $ 400, receipt number AMNDC-7754404) filed by Contreras & Metelska, P.A.. Filer requests summons issued. (Attachments: # 1 Civil Cover Sheet) (Ratkowski, Nicholas) Modified text on 5/27/2020 (MMP). (Entered: 05/27/2020)
2020-05-27	2	TEXT ONLY ENTRY: CLERK'S NOTICE OF INITIAL CASE ASSIGNMENT. Case assigned to Judge Susan Richard Nelson per 3rd 4th Master list, referred to Magistrate Judge Katherian M. Menedez. Please use case number 20-cv-1261 (SRN/KMM). (MMP) (Entered: 05/27/2020)
2020-05-27	3	Summons Issued as to Executive Office for Immigration Review, U.S. Department of Justice. (MMP) (Entered: 05/27/2020)
2020-05-27	4	SUMMONS Returned Executed as to USA by Contreras & Metelska, P.A.. Executive Office for Immigration Review served on 5/27/2020, answer due 7/27/2020; U.S. Department of Justice served on 5/27/2020, answer due 7/27/2020. (Ratkowski, Nicholas) (Entered: 05/27/2020)
2020-06-10	5	NOTICE of Appearance by Ann M Bildtsen on behalf of Executive Office for Immigration Review, U.S. Department of Justice. (Bildtsen, Ann) (Entered: 06/10/2020)
2020-06-26	6	STIPULATION of Dismissal by Executive Office for Immigration Review, U.S. Department of Justice. Jointly Signed by Contreras & Metelska, P.A.. (Bildtsen, Ann) (Entered: 06/26/2020)
2020-06-26	7	PROPOSED ORDER TO JUDGE re 6 Stipulation of Dismissal. (Bildtsen, Ann) (Entered: 06/26/2020)
2020-06-29	8	ORDER DISMISSING CASE re 6 Stipulation of Dismissal. Signed by Judge Susan Richard Nelson on 6/29/2020.(SMD) (Entered: 06/29/2020)
2020-06-29	9	JUDGMENT (Attachments: # 1 Civil Notice - appeal)(MMG) (Entered: 06/29/2020)
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