Counsel Fees

In New Jersey, in a family court matter, if a party’s position is unreasonable or taken in bad faith, the other party can seek reimbursement of attorney’s fees. This was the case in the recent unpublished decision of Ramirez v. Ramirez, New Jersey App. Div., Docket No. A-2035-08T32035-08T3, November 24, 2009

 In Ramirez, the parties were divorced by a Dual Final Judgment of Divorce entered on January 29, 2007, which incorporated a settlement agreement. Following the divorce, in three separate motions, plaintiff persisted in seeking a re-calculation of defendant’s income based upon allegations and documentation relating to circumstances that existed for several years prior to their 2007 divorce. In his December 21, 2007, decision the judge put plaintiff on notice that she had failed to establish a change in circumstances. Nonetheless, plaintiff filed a cross-motion in August 2008 and a motion for reconsideration on October 6, 2008, both of which continued to seek the same relief based upon the same allegations. As a result, defendant was compelled to incur “unnecessary costs” for which he is entitled to be reimbursed. Under these circumstances, the judge awarded and the Appellate Division affirmed the counsel fees awarded to defendant.Continue Reading Should You Make a Motion for Reconsideration?

If you’ve ever been involved in any type of litigation you are probably aware of how expensive the process can be.  Attorneys bill for their time.  In addition there are the copying costs, facsimiles, postage, etc.   When experts are involved those fees must also be accounted for. When a  trial is involved the fees can quickly mount.  Trials involve preparation not to mention days and hours of an attorney’s time.

Almost every client or prospective client asks the same question, “How much will this cost me?”  The answer is an unsatisfying it depends.  We often tell clients that we do our best to control our side of the case, however we have no control over the other side.  It’s nearly impossible to give clients an accurate fee estimate as things change on a daily basis.  In family law, the minute an emergency arises that requires an emergent application to the court for relief, fees are expended.  So who pays these fees?

The issue of fees can be addressed in one of two ways.  One, the parties reach an agreement as to the responsibility of fees.  Or, the parties can leave it up to the judge to decide.Continue Reading Who Pays The Counsel Fees?

 We have previously blogged on the issues of counsel fee awards and a trial court’s decision to grant or deny a party’s request for oral argument on a pending motion.  Two of these prior postings can be found here and here.  Both of these issues framed the Appellate Division’s recent unpublished opinion in Bove v. Bove, found here. 

The parties at issue were divorced on June 28, 2001 and three children were born of the marriage (two adult sons and a 16-year old daughter).  A supplemental Judgment of Divorce established that the Wife would have sole physical custody and the parties would share joint legal custody.  Additionally, the Husband was required to create trust funds for the children’s college expenses and to be responsible for 80% of the daughter’s college tuition.

The Wife sought to enroll the daughter in a private high school, informing the Husband that she could not pay for any part of private school tuition, that she was taking the daughter to open houses and that she asked for the Husband’s "thoughts on the matter."  The Husband responded in a letter that he would not contribute to tuition prior to college and was displeased that the issue was broached with their daughter before him.  Nevertheless the Wife moved forward with the process and, when the Husband sought to have the Wife confirm in writing that she would not seek contribution from him for high school tuition, she refused.  The Wife also contended that the Husband was using the college trust funds for non-college expenses, as defined by the supplemental JOD, and the Husband contended that the Wife ignored, and then hedged, on his timely requests for vacation with the children. Continue Reading Appellate Division Explores Counsel Fee Awards and Requests for Oral Argument on Motions

Apple Sulit-Peralejo, a partner in our Atlantic City office blogged earlier today regarding counsel fees and bad faith. 

Often counsel fee decisions come down to findings of bad faith and the case law certainly is replete with references to bad faith.  However, when Court Rule 5:3-5(c) was revised about 10 years ago, the standard was relaxed such that bad faith was no longer necessary, but rather, the "reasonableness" of the positions became the standard.  Or did it?  Reading the cases, such as the one cited in Apple’s post. a lot of time was spent on the issue of bad faith.

That said, when you see large counsel fee awards, it is usually after a trial.  In my experience, though few cases are tried (about 1 to 2%), when cases get tried, it is because one party’s conduct or the positions that the took were so absurd that a finding of bad faith is almost inevitable.

Earlier this week, after a 5 day trial that took place over the better part of a year, my client was awarded $40,000 in legal fees.  In this case, she was the parent of primary residence in the parties’ divorce agreement.  She told her ex-husband that she was going to move to Monmouth County from Hudson County with the parties’ child, to live with her fiance’.  The husband made a motion for custody, essentially seeking to preclude our client from moving with her child.  The case law is pretty clear that the custodial parent can move within the state of NJ.  After we cited that in our brief in opposition to the motion, he concocted a new argument that he was the de facto custodial parent and the trial followed on this issue.  During the trial we were able to prove that his claim was bogus and that for a very short period of time post divorce when he had the child more than 50% of the time, it was because he violated the Agreement and refused to return the child.  This conduct as well as his lies were simply unreasonable.  Similarly, the Court found that he was actively trying to remove our client from the child’s life.  This too was unreasonable.Continue Reading If I Win, Do I Get Counsel Fees? – Another Perspective