I lost my case in a limited breach of contract case. I owe $15000 now sued for $28000 in attorney costs. This is a limited civil case, can t...

Question

I lost my case in a limited breach of contract case. I owe $15000 now sued for $28000 in attorney costs. This is a limited civil case, can the plaintiff recover all $28000 in addition to $15k is it not less than $25000 total?

Answer

The $25,000 limit is exclusive of interest, fees and costs.

Answer

First, ordinarily in U.S. courts each side pays its own legal fees. There are a few exceptions by statute for certain tort cases, and in contract cases legal fees can be assessed against the party that fails to prevail (i.e., loses) when the contract so provides. The fees are awarded in addition to the damages when the plaintiff wins, and would not be subject to the $25,000 limit for a limited civil complaint. However, the court is permitted to limit a fee award to a reasonable sum. There has been a lot of litigation over the size of post-trial fee claims and the court's ability and policy to trim back excessive claims.

Since you apparently were self-representef, which may have contributed to your losing the case (?) you now have no attorney to knowledgably oppose the prevailing party's fee claim. However, that's what needs to be done at this point. When the fee claim is presented to the court for approval, you (or your lawyer) need to review it and contest the excessive requests.

There are indeed cases where the courts have approved fee awards in excess of the damages won, but $28K for a $15K judgment seems pretty steep. I'd say a good lawyer could argue down the award, at least somewhat, but who knows? We weren't there.

Answer

The previous answers are correct. I will add, though, that you will need to dispute the claimed costs and fees in two different ways. For the attorneys fees, the other side needs to bring a motion. Presumably, that has already happened. You need to file an opposition in a timely manner. Unless the court has set a different schedule, you will need to oppose the attorney fee motion by filing the proper papers 9 court days before the hearing and serving the papers in a manner that is calculated to get them to the opposing side on the next day, e.g. FedEx, UPS, or Express Mail. Mr. Whipple properly pointed out that, even if you owe attorneys fees, you can dispute the propriety of the amount that is claimed.

For any costs (other than attorney fees), the opposing side will likely file a Memorandum of Costs. To dispute any amounts, there, you will need to bring a motion.

You would be well served to check with an attorney, regarding your post-judgment rights.