{"id":1949,"date":"2019-09-03T05:46:52","date_gmt":"2019-09-03T05:46:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bresky-merger.local.com\/posts\/attorneys-fees-and-the-requirement-of-expert-witness-testimony-in-florida-2\/"},"modified":"2019-09-03T05:46:52","modified_gmt":"2019-09-03T05:46:52","slug":"attorneys-fees-and-the-requirement-of-expert-witness-testimony-in-florida-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ssrga.com\/appellate\/attorneys-fees-and-the-requirement-of-expert-witness-testimony-in-florida-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Attorney\u2019s Fees and the Requirement of Expert Witness Testimony in Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

July, 2019<\/em><\/p>\n

A party to litigation in Florida is often entitled to recoup its reasonable attorney\u2019s fees from the opposing party pursuant to a statute or a contract between the parties. Florida law requires in most cases that a party seeking its fees from the opposing party introduce the testimony of an expert witness in support of the request for attorney\u2019s fees. The role of the expert attorney\u2019s fees witness is generally to testify regarding the reasonableness of the attorney\u2019s fees being sought, which includes such aspects as the hourly rate and number of hours expended.<\/p>\n

Attorneys and courts have questioned whether expert fee witnesses should be required for a party to establish the reasonableness of its fees. The Fourth DCA has expressed doubt that expert witnesses are more knowledgeable than trial judges as to the reasonableness of attorney\u2019s fees in many cases. See<\/em>Island Hoppers, Ltd. v. Keith, <\/em>820 So. 2d 967, 972 (Fla. 4th DCA 2002). The court noted that appellate courts do not hesitate to disregard expert testimony and reverse \u201cpatently excessive\u201d fee awards. Id.<\/em>Concurring specially, Judge Gross stated that the requirement rests on \u201cshaky theoretical grounds,\u201d because it traces back to Lyle v. Lyle<\/em>, 167 So. 2d 256 (Fla. 2d DCA 1964), a case where the court justified the requirement on public policy grounds but failed to cite any authority.<\/p>\n

 <\/em>The Fourth DCA expressed similar concern about the requirement in Robin Roshkind, P.A. v. Machiela<\/em>, 45 So. 3d 480 (Fla. 4th DCA 2010). In Roshkind<\/em>, the Fourth DCA reluctantly affirmed the denial of a law firm\u2019s motion for attorney\u2019s fees against a former client pursuant to a charging lien where the law firm introduced its billing records but did not provide expert witness testimony. 45 So. 3d at 482. The Fourth DCA noted that the requirement of expert witness testimony is \u201cjudicially-created\u201d and increases litigation costs. Id<\/em>. at 481-482. The Fourth DCA certified the question to the Florida Supreme Court as one of great public importance. Id<\/em>. at 482. The Florida Supreme Court initially accepted jurisdiction, but later discharged jurisdiction and declined to decide the case following briefing and oral argument. Robin Roshkind, P.A. v. Machiela<\/em>, 64 So. 3d 1245 (Fla. 2011).<\/p>\n

With a few exceptions, Florida law continues to require an independent expert witness to establish the reasonableness of fees, regardless of whether a first or third party is responsible for payment. The rationale for the requirement is that \u201cattorneys have an ethical duty, pursuant to the Florida Rules Regulating the Florida Bar, to charge fair and reasonable fees, regardless of the terms of the fee agreement.\u201d Roshkind<\/em>, 45 So. 3d at 481-482.Several attorneys of Bresky Law are experienced in serving as expert fee witnesses regarding attorney\u2019s fees incurred in appellate and trial court matters. We would be happy to assist you and your client in pursuing your client\u2019s attorney\u2019s fees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

July, 2019 A party to litigation in Florida is often entitled to recoup its reasonable attorney\u2019s fees from the opposing party pursuant to a statute or a contract between the parties. Florida law requires in most cases that a party seeking its fees from the opposing party introduce the testimony of an expert witness in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1812,1807,1806,1830,1838],"tags":[1845],"class_list":["post-1949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-attorneys-fees","category-bresky-appellate-cases","category-family","category-general","category-notable-cases","tag-commercial"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssrga.com\/appellate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssrga.com\/appellate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssrga.com\/appellate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssrga.com\/appellate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssrga.com\/appellate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ssrga.com\/appellate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1949\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssrga.com\/appellate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssrga.com\/appellate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssrga.com\/appellate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}