ELIZABETH F. SIMPSON, APPELLANT,
v.
JAMES WARREN SIMPSON, JR., APPELLEE
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The court held that the trial court erred in awarding attorney's fees without evidence of reasonableness, need, and ability to pay.
The trial court ordered Mr. Simpson to pay partial attorney's fees to Mrs. Simpson's attorneys without taking evidence on the reasonableness of the aw…
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RYDER, Acting Chief Judge.
Elizabeth Simpson has raised two issues in this appeal, only one of which requires reversal. We affirm the trial court’s decision except as to the award of attorney’s fees to Mrs. Simpson’s legal counsel.
The trial court ordered Mr. Simpson to pay to Mrs. Simpson’s attorneys $300.00 as partial payment of her attorneys’ fees. There is no evidence in the record concerning the reasonableness of that award. Dickerson v. Dickerson, 395 So. 2d 1252 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981); Tanner v. Tanner, 391 So. 2d 305 (Fla. 4th DCA 1980); Feldman v. Feldman, 390 So. 2d 1231 (Fla. 3d DCA 1980). Both parties concede that the trial court erred in awarding the fees without taking evidence as to reasonableness.
We, therefore, remand this cause for the taking of evidence pertinent to a determination of Mrs. Simpson’s need for, and Mr. Simpson’s ability to pay, an award of attorneys’ fees to Mrs. Simpson’s counsel, as well as a determination of a reasonable amount of attorneys’ fees if it is found that Mr. Simpson is to pay for any part of Mrs. Simpson’s attorneys’ fees.
AFFIRMED in part, REVERSED in part, and REMANDED.
DANAHY and LEHAN, JJ., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
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Harris v. Harris, 162 So. 3d 1108 (Fla. 5th DCA 2015)…and that the court “conducted an evidentiary hearing.” But it appears that no such hearing occurred. Therefore, we reverse the award of attorney’s fees and remand for the trial court to conduct an evidentiary hearing. See, e.g., Simpson v. Simpson, 440 So. 2d 648, 649 (Fla. 2d DCA 1983) (remanding because there was “no evidence in the record concerning the reasonableness of [the attorney fee] award”); see also McIlveen v. McIlveen, 644 So. 2d 612, 612 (Fla. 2d DCA 1994) (‘We agree with the husband that the t…
Authorities Cited
- Feldman v. Zena K. Feldman, 390 So. 2d 1231 (Fla. 3d DCA 1980)
- Gen. Accident Fire & Life Assurance Corp., Ltd. v. Kellin, 391 So. 2d 305 (Fla. 4th DCA 1980)
- Tanner v. Tanner, 391 So. 2d 305 (Fla. 4th DCA 1980)
- Dickerson v. Dickerson, 395 So. 2d 1252 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981)