Your Reasonable Attorney’s Fees Expert May be a Taxable Cost

I am the prevailing party and I am entitled to recover my attorney’s fees from the opposing party! Now what? If you are unable to come to an agreement with the opposing side regarding the amount of attorney’s fees you incurred, then you need to have an evidentiary hearing for the court to determine your reasonable attorney’s fees. This requires your attorney to testify as to the rates and the number of hours expended on the matter. This also importantly requires to you to have an expert testify as to the reasonableness of the attorney’s fees you incurred. See Jaffe v....

02 September

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Strategic Reasons for Serving a “Good Faith” Proposal for Settlement

Posted by David Adelstein

in Trial Perspectives

You know how proposals for settlement / offers of judgment ("proposals for settlement") work because I previously wrote about this topic. You know that such proposals for settlement need to be made in good faith. Remember, proposals for settlement create the argument to recover attorney's fees from the date the proposal for settlement is served on forward. The recent case of Key West Seaside, LLC v. Certified Lower Keys Plumbing, Inc., 40 Fla. L. Weekly D2052b (Fla. 3d DCA 2015), exemplifies a defendant relying on a proposal for settlement. In this case, a defendant served the plaintiff with a proposal for settlement....

29 March

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Considerations Involving Proposals for Settlement / Offers for Judgment

Posted by David Adelstein

in Trial Perspectives

There needs to be a contractual or statutory basis in order to be entitled to recover your reasonable attorneys' fees at trial. See Cadenhead v. Gaetz, 677 So.2d 96, 97 (Fla. 1st DCA 1996). This means either the contract needs to support a basis for the party to recover attorney’s fees (such as a prevailing party attorneys’ fees provision or a contractual indemnification provision that authorizes attorneys’ fees) or there needs to be a statute that authorizes you to recover reasonable attorneys' fees. Absent these bases, there is generally no basis to recover attorneys' fees. However, there is a vehicle under...

attorneys’ fees Tag

Your Reasonable Attorney’s Fees Expert May be a Taxable Cost

Strategic Reasons for Serving a “Good Faith” Proposal for Settlement

Considerations Involving Proposals for Settlement / Offers for Judgment