Motions for Attorney’s Fees in Florida Probate Cases. (Jan. 14, 2015 Florida 4th DCA Case)

Uncategorized • Jan 14, 2015

In certain cases concerning probate and estate administration in Florida, the victor often times can receive attorney’s fees and other costs associated wtih the case. But before they do, they must “move” for it, orsubmit a written request to the court clarifying the amounts and reasons they believe they are entitled to such an award.

Any West Palm Beach Probate Litigation attorney will tell you that, for the most part,Probate Court in Florida follows almost all of the same rules as any Civil proceeding in Florida. Florida Civil court is governed by the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure, which can be found here. However, the one Florida Rule of Civil Procedure that does not apply to probate casesis the rule placing a 30-day time limit on motions for costs and attorney’s fees.

Such was the issue in a recent Florida Probate Court case in Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeals:

In Finnegan v. Compton, Finnegan won an underlying Florida Probate case on Jan. 5, 2011.
On Sept. 7, 2012, Finnegan moved for an award of costs and attorney’s fees associated with the underlying litigation.
When the trial court denied the motion for not being timely, Finnegan appealed.
In his appeal, Finnegan cited Florida Probate Rule 5.025, which removes the application of the time limit for motions for attorney’s fees for Florida Probate Court proceedings.
The court clarified, however, that although Florida Probate Rule 5.025 was codified in September, 2011, it applied only to proceedings that were finalized after the codification.
Thus, even though Finnegan’s motion for attorney’s fees came almost 1 year after Rule 5.025, it was the final judgment of the first proceeding on Jan. 5, 2011, that made the rule inapplicable to his case.

For further reading, see the full opinion here.

Have you had any experience filing motions for attorney’s fees in Florida? If so, leave a comment below.

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