Lodestar Rates — ORIGINAL-INPUT RECONSTRUCTION Checked October 30, 2026. Supersedes the first D.C.-published-rate prototype. SCOPE Seven city pages: Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Sacramento, Seattle, and San Diego. Eleven rate periods beginning June2016 through June2026; each ends May31 of the following year. Units: USD per hour. No wage data, local billing survey, or discretionary geographic uplift is used. ORIGINAL PUBLISHER METHOD https://www.tpmlaw.com/s/LSI-Laffey-Matrix-Rates-kbcl.pdf Original1988–89 base rates by years out of law school: 20th+:265;11th–19th:220;8th–10th:195;4th–7th:135;1st–3rd:110; paralegal/law clerk:60. These original bases were calibrated in Washington,D.C. They are not independently measured starting rates for each metro. Publisher footnotes: annual June legal-services CPI ratios through2021; May/July mean in2022 over June2021; May/July2023 mean over May/July2022 mean; from2024 annual June Offices of Lawyers PPI ratios. CURRENT OFFICIAL INPUTS BLS legal-services CPI series CUUR0000SEGD01 (NOT SEGD03). June1988=107.1. June2016=333.681;2017=349.127;2018=361.374; 2019=363.152;2020=368.924;2021=371.157. May2022=399.211;July2022=406.267;mean=402.739. May2023=428.416;July2023=424.823;mean=426.6195. BLS Offices of Lawyers PPI series PCU541110541110,NSA: June2023=270.421;2024=292.104;2025=314.111;2026=338.788 (preliminary). API source URLs: https://api.bls.gov/publicAPI/v2/timeseries/data/CUUR0000SEGD01?startyear=1988&endyear=1989 https://api.bls.gov/publicAPI/v2/timeseries/data/CUUR0000SEGD01?startyear=2015&endyear=2023 https://api.bls.gov/publicAPI/v2/timeseries/data/PCU541110541110?startyear=2023&endyear=2026 EXACT FORMULA I_y = June CPI_y /107.1 for2016–2021. I_y = mean(May CPI_y,July CPI_y)/107.1 for2022–2023. I_y = (426.6195/107.1)*(June PPI_y/270.421) for2024–2026. The ratios telescope the publisher's annual method without interim rounding. G_city,y = (100+OPM_city,y percent)/(100+OPM_DCB,y percent). Calculated rate=round_half_up(original_base * I_y * G_city,y). Only final hourly amounts are rounded; factors retain full precision. The city rate does NOT start from today's rounded D.C. published table. FEDERAL GEOGRAPHY 88 source records: eight locality areas including DCB,11 calendar years2016–26. Use locality percentages; do not compare capped federal salary cells. The locality is the federal pay area containing the city, which can extend beyond its Census metro. Areas/county coverage may change between years. The rate period JuneY–MayY+1 uses the locality percentage for calendarY. This start-year convention is explicit; it does not switch in JanuaryY+1. OPM inputs are official; their application to attorney rates is not an OPM fee schedule or court approval. Locality pay concerns labor-pay differences, not a consumer cost-of-living index. No interest is included. BAY AREA CHECKS 2016:333.681/107.1 ×135.75/124.78; rates898,746,661,458,373,203. 2026:(426.6195/107.1)*(338.788/270.421)*(146.34/133.94); rates1445,1200,1063,736,600,327. 2026 national inflation factor4.9904399736827; locality factor1.0925787666119158. Senior example265×inflation×locality=1444.898919...→1445. Independent Decimal calculation checked both SF endpoints and base anchor. June1989 CPI114.6/107.1=1.0700280112 matches first published factor. RECONCILIATION TO PUBLISHED TABLE 2026 reconstructed national amounts1322,1098,973,674,549,299. Publisher PDF2026 amounts1325,1100,974,675,548,299. These differences are retained and disclosed. Original unrounded workbook and vintage inputs are unavailable. Rounding/vintage differences are possible explanations, not established causes. Never label reconstructed rows verbatim published Laffey rates. Published2026 factor1.079179 differs from current PPI338.788/314.111=1.0785614002693316. LEGAL APPLICATION Publisher footnotes support the inflation method. Federal locality extension is a separate step illustrated for an older USAO matrix in In re HPL Technologies,366 F.Supp.2d912,921–22&n.1(N.D.Cal.2005). Neither that decision nor official inputs establish current court approval of these exact reconstructed rates. See the site case-law section for recent supportive and limiting decisions. No comprehensive citator check was made. CALCULATOR Each row selects rate period and experience band, plus hours. Subtotal=round(rounded hourly rate×hours,2 decimals);total=sum subtotals. Split rows across rate years/experience changes. No costs,interest,multipliers. Whether current or historical rates apply is a legal choice outside this tool. Inputs remain local in the browser and reset on reload or city navigation. ARCHIVE AND UPDATE calculation-inputs.json records all77 city-year calculations and462 rate cells. historical-localities.json records percentages,PDF links,hashes,retrieval dates. Saved BLS API responses retain underlying monthly observations/footnotes. Retain old vintages when updating; verify current publisher method, refresh indices and matching-year locality PDFs, rerun formulas and reconciliation, review legal support, publish a dated new version. No automatic updates. Other archived nationwide OPM inputs support future expansion, not active seven-city calculations. Original third-party documents retain their own rights. OPTIONAL RATE GUIDES AND DRAFTING Laffey is the default. Real Rate Report, Clio and other guides allow manual entry of rates, dates, roles and citations. Licensed datasets are not bundled. No locality or inflation adjustment is added to these manual inputs. The Bay Area court option reproduces Connett rates from Food & Water Watch ECF503, p7, for 2016–2025 only; the 2025 figure was adopted from the request. All examples remain case-specific. Draft declarations assemble answers in browser memory only, with no signature or independently verified opinion. DISPLAY PRECISION The web interface displays no more than two decimals. These source records retain full precision to permit an exact reconstruction.