Dannenberg

In March 2000, a jury entered a verdict in favor of plaintiff-appellee John Dannen-berg, a California state prison inmate, against four prison officials for violating Dannenberg’s constitutional rights by punishing him for engaging in protected activity while in prison. The jury awarded Dannenberg $9,000 in damages, and the district court subsequently entered an injunction ordering that certain materials be expunged from Dannenberg’s prison record. The court then granted Dannen-berg’s motion for attorneys’ fees incurred subsequent to enactment of the Prison Litigation Reform Act (“PLRA”) in the amount of $57,566.25.

This appeal followed, challenging only the amount of the attorneys’ fees award. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 .

BACKGROUND

WTiile an inmate at the California Medical Facility State Prison (“CMF”) in Vaca-ville, California in 1994 and 1995, appellee John Dannenberg assisted another inmate to litigate, successfully, a petition for a writ of mandate to restore the inmate’s family visitation rights. Thirty-four days after securing the writ, Dannenberg was placed in administrative segregation and all of his legal papers confiscated on the…