Attorney’s fees’ provisions are common in construction contracts.  They are an important provision if you want to create a contractual entitlement to recover your attorney’s fees in the event there is a contractual dispute.  Presuming you prevail on the significant issues of your dispute and are entitled to attorney’s fees, there is an evidentiary hearing as to the reasonableness of attorney’s fees — both as to the reasonableness of the hours expended and of the hourly rates.   Generally, the attorney’s fees incurred in litigating the amount of attorney’s fees is not recoverable.  This is oftentimes referred to as “fees on fees.”  With that said, such fees on fees can be recoverable if the contractual provision is drafted broad enough to allow the prevailing party to recover reasonable attorney’s fees including fees incurred in litigating the reasonable amount of fees.   If you want to recover fees on fees, you will want to include this language in your construction contract.  For more information on this issue, please check this article.   

 

 

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.