Thursday, September 17, 2015

Attorney's Fees

Yesterday, I discussed Branch v. Branch located here.  One of the issues was the payment of attorney's fees by the Ms. Branch's parents.  In Paragraph 61, the Court of Appeals noted:
"The chancellor did not, however, address the payments of Lauren’s attorney’s fees by
her parents and Curt’s ability to pay the fees.  In determining attorney’s fees, the chancellor
must determine the parties’ relative abilities to pay.  McKee, 418 So. 2d at 767.  Despite this
omission in the findings, the chancellor accurately relied on the financial position of Lauren
and correctly awarded her attorney’s fees."


The last sentence to me is what is interesting.  It is unclear to me if you can only consider the individual parties' ability to pay themselves or if you can consider the ability of a party to get the funds from alternate sources.    From reading the opinion, it seems to imply that you are not to consider the payment of attorney's fees by a third party. 

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