Meritas Capability Webinar - Controlling Where to Fight and Who Pays for it?
Contracts with “prevailing party” provisions offer the tantalizing, coveted prospect of the winner recovering attorneys’ fees from the loser in legal disputes over the contract’s enforcement....more
PVH Polymath Venture Holdings Ltd. v. TAG Fintech Inc., C.A. No. 2023-0502-BWD (Del. Ch. Jan. 26, 2024) - Under the “bad faith” exception to the American Rule, Delaware courts will consider shifting fees when aggressive...more
Under a common-law doctrine successful litigants love to hate – the “American Rule” – a party to litigation cannot recover its legal fees unless a contract, statute, or court rule expressly authorizes fee-shifting to the...more
A federal court in Connecticut reduced attorneys’ fees and costs sought by a sales representative after the court raised concerns about several issues with the sales representative’s trial strategy. Trade Links, LLC v. Bi-Qem...more
In Escano v. Innovative Financial Partners, LLC, a magistrate judge held that the defendants’ decision to withhold funds from a payment required under a settlement agreement when the plaintiff refused to provide a Form W-9...more
Last week a trial court in Alameda County entered an order permitting Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. to recover nearly $125,000 in costs from the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency (LWDA). Hobby Lobby incurred these...more
The early stages of partner and shareholder relationships are about hope and promise, not discord and dispute. Yet, the earliest stage—and during the drafting of the partner or shareholder agreement—offer real opportunities...more
As discussed in prior articles, stockholder plaintiffs have increasingly sought to obtain companies’ books and records under 8 Del. C. § 220 (Section 220) and the Delaware Limited Liability Company Act’s analogous provision,...more
In a split decision, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a district court’s award of more than $5 million in attorneys’ fees, finding that the district court did not abuse its discretion in finding the...more
Deciding whether to include a prevailing party attorneys’ fee provision in a contract is important, as doing so has significant risk and cost implications of litigation. Prevailing party provisions foster dispute...more
Judge Krupp, sitting in the Massachusetts Business Litigation Session, awarded a defendant more than $240,000 in attorneys’ fees, expenses, and interest under G.L. c. 231, § 6F, the Massachusetts statute authorizing fee...more
Statutes permitting discretionary attorney fee-shifting for prevailing defendants vary in the circumstances under which fee-shifting is permitted. Two recent cases tackling the question of why and when a lawsuit warrants...more
Addressing the symmetrical fee-shifting provision of the Copyright Act and whether a prevailing defendant was entitled to fees even when the plaintiff moved to dismiss the case in response to a change in law, the US Court of...more
SDSP, LLC v. Attias, 2023 Pa. Super. Unpub. LEXIS 1518 - The Superior Court of Pennsylvania vacated a multimillion-dollar award to subcontractors arising from a payment dispute, and remanded the matter to the trial court...more
On May 24, 2023, Governor DeSantis approved Florida Senate Bill No. 540. The bill, which will go into effect on July 1, 2023, provides that the prevailing party in a challenge to a comprehensive plan amendment is entitled to...more
Last week we saw the Menard court reject the use of an indemnity clause to shift fees in a dispute between contracting parties. This week, a very recent decision from Nevada highlights another creative way to shift fees where...more
The “American Rule” on attorneys’ fees is that each party pays its own lawyers, even if you win. As with almost any rule, there are exceptions. Sometimes there is a statute that requires the losing party to pay the prevailing...more
From 2019 to 2022, the Florida Legislature enacted four separate property insurance reforms that sought to rein in abusive property insurance litigation fueled by one-way attorney’s fee shifting and an army of professional...more
I have defended numerous FLSA class actions and a big reason that these cases settle is due to the fee-shifting nature of the statutes involved. A defendant employer not only has to pay his lawyer’s fees but it also faces...more
In a recent decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld a lender’s statutory and contractual right to recover attorneys’ fees equal to 15% of the outstanding balance of a loan from a defaulting...more
In Cell-Crete Corp. v. Fed. Ins. Co., a California court awarded a surety attorneys’ fees and costs that its principal incurred defending the surety against a claim on a public-works payment bond. This is good news for...more
This week, the Court explores whether time booting up a computer is compensable under federal labor law and addresses district courts’ discretion to adjust fees for serial American With Disabilities Act litigants....more
On August 17, 2022, Chief Judge Colm F. Connolly of the District of Delaware issued an order in which he questioned the sufficiency of the plaintiff’s disclosure of financially interested parties in Longbeam Technologies LLC....more
The June 2022 edition of OnSite Magazine discussed the case of J&M Interiors v. Centerton Square Owners, which addressed a subcontractor’s right to be paid under New Jersey’s Prompt Payment Act (“PPA”). Several months after...more
Finding a good dance partner can be difficult. If all goes well, your and your partner's steps and turns are in sync, and you both are happy with the resulting dance. But occasionally, your dance partner may make a misstep...more