If you are a party to a divorce or post-divorce proceeding, or are contemplating filing such a case, you should consider the issue of attorney’s fees. Depending on the factual circumstances of your case, a trial court may have authority to order you to pay a portion or all of your spouse’s attorney’s fees and cost, or to order your spouse to pay all or a portion of your attorney’s fees and cost.
Florida Statutes, Section 61.16 provides in part that the court may from time to time, after considering the financial resources of both parties, order a party to pay a reasonable amount for attorney’s fees, suit money and the costs to the other party party of maintaining or defending any proceeding under this chapter, including enforcement and modification proceedings and appeals. However, in addition to the financial resources of the parties, the trial court must consider other relevant factors, such as the scope of the litigation, the merits of the respective positions of the parties, and whether the litigation is brought or maintained primarily to harass.
The purpose of the above attorney’s fee statute is to ensure that both parties will have similar ability to obtain competent legal counsel. Thus, the cases wherein attorney fees and costs are most often awarded are where one party has been left in a far superior financial position at the conclusion of the case, after the trial court equitably distributed the marital assets and liabilities and considered the issue of alimony.
Another circumstance where attorney’s fees are often awarded are in cases where one party engages in attempts to delay, hinder, and obstruct the progress of the proceedings through failure to comply with discovery requests and orders of the court. If you find yourself involved in a divorce or post-divorce case, don’t forget to ask your attorney about the issue of attorney’s fees and how it can affect the outcome of your case.