Firm Wins Attorney's Fees Victory in Miami Appeal

In the firm’s most recent victory, in Reese v. Mathis, 341 So. 3d 477 (Fla. 3d DCA 2022), the Third District Court of Appeal ruled in our favor, affirming a Miami trial court‘s denial of a defendant’s request for attorney’s fees under section 57.105, Florida Statutes, in a negligence action that the plaintiffs lost.

In defending the Miami trial court’s ruling on appeal, we argued that to grant fees in this circumstances would effectively punish plaintiffs who attempted to pursue good-faith extensions of existing legal precedent, but who nevertheless ended up losing their case.

The appellate court effectively agreed and affirmed, finding that the Miami trial court did not abuse its discretion. In other words, when a party in a trial proceeding makes a difficult legal argument and loses, the claim is not necessarily frivolous, and a trial court does not abuse its discretion in denying fees as a sanction. A claim is only frivolous if an attorney knew or should have known that pursuing the claim was not supported by any legal precedent.

The full opinion can be read here: Reese v. Mathis, 341 So. 3d 477 (Fla. 3d DCA 2022).