At trial, Luis Carrillo testified that he paid approximately $35,000 in legal fees in pursuing this action. Before the close of evidence, the court accepted into evidence a detailed accounting of the services performed by the plaintiffs’ attorney and the fees associated with these services. The accounting revealed that over a three year period the plaintiffs’ counsel devoted in excess of ninety hours to this case, billed at a rate that started at $415 per hour.9 The majority of these hours accumulated in an effort to have the defendants comply with discovery requests, to settle with the defendants who were unwilling to do so or to move for default after the defendants’ repeated failures to plead and to appear in court as they were so ordered. The plaintiffs’ counsel explained, when submitting the accounting to the court, that the accounting did not include the time expended preparing for and attending trial. The court then stated that the trial time amounted to approximately four hours and inquired as to the amount of time the plaintiffs’ counsel had spent in preparation for trial. The plaintiffs’ counsel estimated that he had spent ten hours, but could provide a more precise accounting using his firm’s billing system. At no time did the defendants offer any evidence on the issue of attorney’s fees. The only argument heard by the court regarding the reasonableness of the attorney’s fees was the assertion of the defendants’ counsel that attorney’s fees of $45,000 “in connection with this” was “outrageous.”