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Lost a civil case as the Plaintiff's - paying the opposing side's legal fees

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sweeper1

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Arizona

I was the Plaintiff in a civil court case (Justice court) where we were trying to recoup some money from a failed business venture. We were asking for $7000 back and represented ourselves in court. We ended up losing the case on a technicality. Meanwhile, the defendants hired a big time trial lawyer. They won the case and the judge ordered the Plaintiff's (us) to pay the defendant's lawyer fees. The defendants lawyer fees are over $10,000.

Can we appeal the judgment? Do we really have to pay the defendant's lawyer fees because we lost the case?
 


quincy

Senior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Arizona

I was the Plaintiff in a civil court case (Justice court) where we were trying to recoup some money from a failed business venture. We were asking for $7000 back and represented ourselves in court. We ended up losing the case on a technicality. Meanwhile, the defendants hired a big time trial lawyer. They won the case and the judge ordered the Plaintiff's (us) to pay the defendant's lawyer fees. The defendants lawyer fees are over $10,000.

Can we appeal the judgment? Do we really have to pay the defendant's lawyer fees because we lost the case?
What was the technicality that lost you the case?
 

sweeper1

Junior Member
The original compliant was breach of contract (oral contract) but after we did more legal research and when finally got back the interrogatories from the defendant he basically denied everything so we argued our case a misrepresentation (fraud) since we had proof that he was unjustily enriched at our expense. The judge said that legally he couldn't find in our favor because there was no breach of contract even though it was obvious there was mis-representation and morally the defendant should pay us back.

As a result of finding in favor for the defendant, we were ordered to pay the defendant's legal fees (judge mentioned if he could get legal fee from us).

I am fine with losing the case. We tried hard and learned a lot about the legal process. But do we really need to pay the defendant's legal fees? Someone mentioned that Arizona is a right to pay state???
 
The original compliant was breach of contract (oral contract) but after we did more legal research and when finally got back the interrogatories from the defendant he basically denied everything so we argued our case a misrepresentation (fraud) since we had proof that he was unjustily enriched at our expense. The judge said that legally he couldn't find in our favor because there was no breach of contract even though it was obvious there was mis-representation and morally the defendant should pay us back.

As a result of finding in favor for the defendant, we were ordered to pay the defendant's legal fees (judge mentioned if he could get legal fee from us).

I am fine with losing the case. We tried hard and learned a lot about the legal process. But do we really need to pay the defendant's legal fees? Someone mentioned that Arizona is a right to pay state???
The only reason I can think of as to why you have to pay legal fees is because you filed a frivolous lawsuit.
 

Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
The only reason I can think of as to why you have to pay legal fees is because you filed a frivolous lawsuit.
There doesn't need to be a frivolous lawsuit for the judge to order the losing side to pay the attorney's fees of the other party.
 

sweeper1

Junior Member
So is there any way of getting out of paying the opposing side's legal fees? Should we file some motions with the court? We represented ourselves because if we had a lawyer we would have spent more in legal fess than the money we were trying to get back from the defandant.

And what are our options now? The defendant is a total liar and we don't trust him at all. We don't have $10,000 to pay the lawyer fees....can we suggests payments? but I think the defendant will not agree to that.

We just want to get past this and move on with our lives.
 

Paul84

Member
There doesn't need to be a frivolous lawsuit for the judge to order the losing side to pay the attorney's fees of the other party.
Zinger,
In a case such as the one described here, if it were not frivolous, on what basis could the judge order the losing side to pay the other party's attorney's fees?
 

sweeper1

Junior Member
The judge never said the case was frivolous at the trial. Maybe it was, but we truly didn't know it was frivolous. We were just trying to get back money owed to us.

We had a friend mention to us that in Arizona that if you lose a case, the losing side always have to pay the other side's attorney's fees. Is that true?
 

not2cleverRed

Obvious Observer
The original compliant was breach of contract (oral contract) but after we did more legal research and when finally got back the interrogatories from the defendant he basically denied everything so we argued our case a misrepresentation (fraud) since we had proof that he was unjustily enriched at our expense. The judge said that legally he couldn't find in our favor because there was no breach of contract even though it was obvious there was mis-representation and morally the defendant should pay us back.

As a result of finding in favor for the defendant, we were ordered to pay the defendant's legal fees (judge mentioned if he could get legal fee from us).

I am fine with losing the case. We tried hard and learned a lot about the legal process. But do we really need to pay the defendant's legal fees? Someone mentioned that Arizona is a right to pay state???
Observation: If it were "obvious" to the judge, you would not have been ordered to pay the defendant's legal fees.

Do you really need to pay? Well, um, if that's what is written in the decision, then yes, you should.

And yes, there are ways of appealing, but you would be highly advised to find a lawyer.
 

Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
Zinger,
In a case such as the one described here, if it were not frivolous, on what basis could the judge order the losing side to pay the other party's attorney's fees?
Equity comes to mind. It's entirely within the judge's discretion.
 

quincy

Senior Member
... As a result of finding in favor for the defendant, we were ordered to pay the defendant's legal fees (judge mentioned if he could get legal fee from us).

... But do we really need to pay the defendant's legal fees? Someone mentioned that Arizona is a right to pay state???
Here is a link to ARS §12-341.01(a) which could show why the attorney fees were awarded to the defendants in your case:

http://www.azleg.state.az.us/FormatDocument.asp?inDoc=/ars/12/00341-01.htm&Title=12&DocType=ARS
 
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quincy

Senior Member
The original compliant was breach of contract (oral contract) ... we argued our case a misrepresentation (fraud) ... The judge said that legally he couldn't find in our favor because there was no breach of contract...
You could potentially appeal the award of attorney fees under ARS 12-341.01 but, because of the amount of money involved with your loss, I recommend you have an attorney in your area help you structure the appeal. Even with an attorney's help, however, there is no guarantee you will be successful.

Look to Arizona's Rules of Civil Procedure (which largely follow the Federal Rules) to find the time constraints you are under with your appeal.

If you can locate an online source, you can check out Arizona's Supreme Court decision in Barmat v. John and Jane Doe Partners A-D, 155 Ariz. 519, 524, 747 P.2d 1218, 1223 (1987) and Dooley v. O'Brien, 598 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 23, App. Div. 1 (December 2, 2010), both of which argued the award of attorney fees under ARS 12-341.01 on the basis that the legal actions arose from duties imposed by law not contract. Whether similar arguments could work for you is a big question mark but one that can be answered by the attorney you see.

The attorney you see can also, after he has had the chance to personally review your case details, tell you whether it will be smarter for you to forget an appeal and instead try to work out a payment plan on the attorney fees.

Good luck.
 

Paul84

Member
You could potentially appeal the award of attorney fees under ARS 12-341.01 but, because of the amount of money involved with your loss, I recommend you have an attorney in your area help you structure the appeal. Even with an attorney's help, however, there is no guarantee you will be successful.

Look to Arizona's Rules of Civil Procedure (which largely follow the Federal Rules) to find the time constraints you are under with your appeal.

If you can locate an online source, you can check out Arizona's Supreme Court decision in Barmat v. John and Jane Doe Partners A-D, 155 Ariz. 519, 524, 747 P.2d 1218, 1223 (1987) and Dooley v. O'Brien, 598 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 23, App. Div. 1 (December 2, 2010), both of which argued the award of attorney fees under ARS 12-341.01 on the basis that the legal actions arose from duties imposed by law not contract. Whether similar arguments could work for you is a big question mark but one that can be answered by the attorney you see.

The attorney you see can also, after he has had the chance to personally review your case details, tell you whether it will be smarter for you to forget an appeal and instead try to work out a payment plan on the attorney fees.

Good luck.
The Dooley v O'Brien case is at this link: https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=9973974667819602057&q=Dooley+v.+O%27Brien&hl=en&as_sdt=8006 where you can see that the state's supreme court overturned the lower court's awarding of attorneys' fees and the clear rationale for doing so.

This related webpage at https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?about=9973974667819602057&q=Dooley+v.+O%27Brien&hl=en&as_sdt=8006 also shows links to cases for further online research if you care to do it via Google's extremely helpful Google Scholar website.
 
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quincy

Senior Member
The Dooley v O'Brien case is at this link: https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=9973974667819602057&q=Dooley+v.+O%27Brien&hl=en&as_sdt=8006 where you can see that the state's supreme court overturned the lower court's awarding of attorneys' fees and the clear rationale for doing so.

This related webpage at https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?about=9973974667819602057&q=Dooley+v.+O%27Brien&hl=en&as_sdt=8006 also shows links to cases for further online research if you care to do it via Google's extremely helpful Google Scholar website.
Thank you for providing the links, Paul84. I figured there was a free online source for the cases somewhere. :)

The argument against the attorney fees could be a delicate one for sweeper1 to make given the facts provided but, because of the amount of the award, I think it could be worth a local attorney's review.
 

PaulMass

Member
The original compliant was breach of contract (oral contract) but after we did more legal research and when finally got back the interrogatories from the defendant he basically denied everything so we argued our case a misrepresentation (fraud) since we had proof that he was unjustily enriched at our expense. The judge said that legally he couldn't find in our favor because there was no breach of contract even though it was obvious there was mis-representation and morally the defendant should pay us back.

As a result of finding in favor for the defendant, we were ordered to pay the defendant's legal fees (judge mentioned if he could get legal fee from us).

I am fine with losing the case. We tried hard and learned a lot about the legal process. But do we really need to pay the defendant's legal fees? Someone mentioned that Arizona is a right to pay state???
You NEED a lawyer.

When you learned through discovery that there was no breach of contract claim, you should have amended the complaint to claim fraud. It sounds like you did not do that.

Since you did not sue for fraud previously, you may be able to do so now, but I recommend you do not proceed without a lawyer. You've already seen the results of that.

You can also consider bankruptcy.
 

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