Meritas Capability Webinar - Controlling Where to Fight and Who Pays for it?
The Court of Appeal for Bermuda has lately clarified two important aspects of the law of litigation costs in Bermuda: the test for indemnity costs and the availability of issue-based costs awards. In each respect the Court of...more
Under a common-law doctrine successful litigants love to hate – the “American Rule” – a party to litigation cannot recover its legal fees unless a contract, statute, or court rule expressly authorizes fee-shifting to the...more
In Cell-Crete Corp. v. Fed. Ins. Co., a California court awarded a surety attorneys’ fees and costs that its principal incurred defending the surety against a claim on a public-works payment bond. This is good news for...more
In a pair of recent decisions, Florida state courts reined in multiple statutes that allow for the recovery of attorneys’ fees. In one decision, the Florida Supreme Court adopted a relatively narrow reading of Florida’s...more
This decision holds that a general obligation to indemnify another party to a contract applies only to claims filed by a third party and not to claims between the parties to the contract itself. Hence, if you want to cover...more
One of the most common questions I get from my clients is whether they can recover their legal expenses for having to defend a meritless case. The short answer is that in most cases, no. That may seem unfair, especially...more