Rep. Leonard has introduced HB 1061 which would mandate that courts award attorney’s fees to the prevailing party in all civil litigation. Current law permits courts to award attorney’s fees to the prevailing party in cases where the claim or defense was frivolous from the outset or the litigant became aware that the claim or defense was frivolous but continued litigating it anyway. There are also certain cases where attorney’s fees to the prevailing party are mandated statutorily. (E.g. civil rights cases, wage claims). But, in general, civil litigation follows “the American Rule” where each party bears their own fees.
This seems like a bad idea. It’ll probably make cases harder to settle and, once the fees get beyond a certain level in a case, make parties fight to the bitter end because the fees have already become unbearable. Wealthy litigants can simply bully middle-class litigants out of court. Sure, they’ll get tagged for attorney’s fees themselves sometimes, but they can add it to the cost of doing business whereas they will be litigating against people for whom a hefty fee judgment would be life-ruining. (Folks with no particular wealth to lose might not care so much.)
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