Thursday, May 16, 2013

How much does it really cost to enforce the Court's order?

Lots of times in enforcing the Court's orders, contempt has to be filed against an opposing party. It requires lots of work at times on dealing with the what is necessary to enforce the Court's order but inevitably issues that also have to be addressed at the same time. The Mississippi Supreme Court held a while back that fees awarded for contempt should not exceed the expense incurred as a result of the contemptuous conduct. Hanshaw v. Hanshaw,55 So.3d 143, 148 (¶17) (Miss. 2011). A number of appellate opinions including one of my own have been reversed for the trial court to determine the amount of the fee necessary just for enforcing the Court's order as opposed to other issues which were also necessary to address outside of the contempt issue. The trend seems to be for stricter findings on the amount of attorney's fees that fit within the areas where attorney's fees can be awarded that I have previously discussed on here. 

My suggestion now is to itemize out and do separate attorney's fees affidavits for each area (i.e. contempt, modification, etc.). I predict Mississippi may start to do as a number of judges in Tennessee do now and require your affidavit to list each of the applicable attorney's fees factors (i.e. McKee in Mississippi, Wright v. Wright in Tennessee) and how they apply to your case. I am crafting a form in line with that for Mississippi to include in the final book draft I am working on.

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