[pineaux]

I laughed. No in europe when you win a case like this the judge usually forces the losing party to pay the legal expenses of the winner. Especially if the losing party is a big corporation.

[petcat]

It's the same in the US

[staticman2]

It is not. Legal fees are rarely awarded in the U.S.

[petcat]

I should have said if you recover it in your damages, which every competent attorney will push for.

[staticman2]

Legal fees are not something you are usually legally entitled to.

Your attorney can push for whatever illegal thing they can think of, it doesn't mean you will get it.

[malfist]

> Your attorney can push for whatever illegal thing they can think of, it doesn't mean you will get it.

It is not illegal to include legal fees in damages.

[staticman2]

By illegal I mean contrary to American law.

Legal fees are literally not damages. A court granting legal fees would be doing that in addition to damages.

In most cases the jury will never even be told what your attorneys fees are, and they are not permitted to award them:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_rule_(attorney%27s_fe...

[hluska]

Under what statute is it illegal to request legal fees?

[patmorgan23]

Requesting and being granted legal fees are two different things.

The default "American rule" is that each party pays their own legal fees, unless there is a relevant fee shifting rule.

[staticman2]

> Under what statute is it illegal to request legal fees?

You can request anything you want? Granting it would be illegal.

An attorney asking the judge to break the law and award attorney fees is literally asking for something illegal in most circumstances. There are exceptions. (By illegal I mean contrary to law.)

It's funny that 4 people downvoted me instead of bothering to check Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_rule_(attorney%27s_fe...