Attorney's Fees Dispute Experts

In some legal disputes, the victorious (“prevailing”) party becomes entitled to have its legal expenses, including attorney’s fees, paid or reimbursed by the losing (“non-prevailing”) party. However, courts rarely award the entire amount of a party’s attorney’s fees and instead award a lesser amount that the court determines to be “reasonable.” As a result, after the main issue in a lawsuit is resolved, a second dispute often arises over the reasonable amount of attorney’s fees that the non-prevailing party must pay to the prevailing party. In nearly all such disputes, both parties hire experienced attorneys who were not involved in the main litigation to serve as experts who evaluate the legal work involved in the case and make recommendations to the court about what’s reasonable. The experts’ opinions and recommendations often involve a detailed and highly technical evaluation of one or both parties’ attorney’s billing records. The court’s ultimate determination often turns upon the credibility of the expert witness and the integrity of the expert’s technical methodology and analysis.

A quality, experienced attorney’s fees expert can prevent a legal win from resulting in a financial loss to a prevailing party or, alternatively, substantially reduce the financial burden of a non-prevailing party. Over the past 20+ years, Bradley Trushin has established himself as a recognized authority on attorney’s fee billing practice, the consummate “lawyer’s lawyer.”