In prior postings, I have discussed a Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices claim that goes by the acronym FDUTPA. You can review the posts here, here, and here.
There are times a FDUTPA claim is asserted to try to trigger an argument for statutory attorney’s fees. However, a recent case demonstrates that attorney’s fees under a FDUTPA claim are permissive, meaning the court has discretion to award attorney’s fees OR not award attorney’s fees to the prevailing party. The case talks about factors the trial court may consider to determine an award of attorney’s fees to a prevailing party.
The takeaway is that attorney’s fees under a FDUTPA claim are not mandatory and that asserting a FDUTPA claim may not give you the leverage you think due to the permissive nature of prevailing party attorney’s fees and, of course, the fact such claims are not easy to prove.
Please contact David Adelstein at dadelstein@gmail.com or (954) 361-4720 if you have questions or would like more information regarding this article. You can follow David Adelstein on Twitter @DavidAdelstein1.