Are you pursuing attorney’s fees in West Palm Beach? Do you know how the Court is going to determine what a reasonable fee is? The answer is not as simply as you may be thinking. If you know how the Court has to figure out the fee then it is going to be a lot easier to make your case to them. Do you know the rules? Check out this case from the Fourth District Court of Appeals that outlines the approach used by the Courts in and for West Palm Beach.
Are You Even Entitled to Fees?
- The first thing is to determine if you are entitled to attorney’s fees.
- There are two main ways that you may find yourself entitled.
- First you may be entitled by statute.
- Do you know what statutes award attorney’s fees?
- It really depends but some common examples are when the other side engages in bad faith litigation tactics, certain marriage dissolutions, certain trust disputes and successful Palm Beach derivative suits to name a few.
- The other way is through an agreement.
- In other words you may have a contractual right to fees.
- Clients are often confused of the need for a hearing on attorney’s fees – wait didn’t we agree to the amount in the retainer?
- Not really, that is what the client and the attorney agreed to, you couldn’t just impress that deal onto the other side without determining if it is reasonable.
- This begs, the question, how do I know if a fee is reasonable?
Nalasco v. Buckman, Buckman & Reid
- This was an appeal from the Fourth District Court of Appeal regarding attorney’s fees.
- The prevailing party in a securities arbitration case was awarded twenty two thousand dollars but they asked for over three hundred thousand dollars.
- I liked this case because it shows how the Court determines the award of fees, take a look.
- They use something called the Rowe test named after a case decided by the Florida Supreme Court.
- The court was actually adopting a federal test from a case called Lodestar.
- First the court determines a reasonable amount of hours to spend the issue that fees are being awarded for.
- From there the court will determine what a reasonable hourly fee is, what the attorney and client had previously agreed to is largely irrelevant although the court may take it into advisement.
- Next there is something called a risk factor that may be added in certain types of cases.
- Do you know if your case qualifies for a risk multiplier?
Want to learn more about attorney’s fees?
Check out the entire case by clicking here.