WILLIE GENE BRASWELL, APPELLANT,
v.
WILLIE GRAHAM BRASWELL, INDIVIDUALLY, AND AS PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE ESTATE OF DEBBIE L. BRASWELL, DECEASED, APPELLEE
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Willie Gene Braswell appeals an order awarding attorney's fees and costs to his former wife in a dissolution of marriage proceeding. The appellate court reversed the award because the wife's attorney failed to introduce any competent evidence supporting the fee claim at the hearing.
An award of attorney's fees cannot be sustained without competent and substantial evidence, including invoices, records, and other information detailing services provided, along with attorney testimony in support of the fee claim. Because the wife's attorney introduced no such evidence, the fee award must be reversed and no remand is warranted.
[1] An award of attorney's fees requires competent and substantial evidence detailing services provided and testimony from the attorney.
[2] Attorney time records are critical to determining the propriety of hours expended on a client's behalf.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“An award of attorney's fees requires competent and substantial evidence. Competent evidence includes invoices, records and other information detailing the services provided as well as the testimony from the attorney in support of the fee.”
Establishes the legal standard for attorney's fee awards in Florida
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceIn a dissolution of marriage proceeding, the wife's attorney sought $40,032.50 in attorney's fees and costs. At the hearing on the motion for attorney…
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Willie Gene Braswell appeals an order awarding attorney’s fees and costs to Debbie L. Braswell, his former wife, which fees were incurred in their dissolution of marriage proceeding. We agree with the Husband that the trial court erred in awarding fees to the Wife where there was *5insufficient evidence to support such an award.
At the hearing on the Wife’s motion for attorney’s fees, the Wife’s attorney introduced no evidence to support his claim for fees and costs. The attorney claimed that his total fees and costs are $40,032.50.1 Although the Wife’s attorney claimed in his brief and at oral argument that the documents he introduced were lost by the clerk, the transcript of the hearing establishes that he did not introduce any documents into evidence.
“An award of attorney’s fees requires competent and substantial evidence. Competent evidence includes invoices, records and other information detailing the services provided as well as the testimony from the attorney in support of the fee.” Brewer v. Solovsky, 945 So.2d 610, 611 (Fla. 4th DCA 2006) (citation omitted). This court has held that an attorney’s time records, in their entirety, are critical to determining the propriety of the hours expended on a client’s behalf. Tucker v. Tucker, 513 So.2d 733, 735 (Fla. 2d DCA 1987); see also Warner v. Warner, 692 So.2d 266, 268 (Fla. 5th DCA 1997) (holding that to establish an award of fees, a party must present evidence detailing exactly what services were performed); Carlson v. Carlson, 639 So.2d 1094, 1096 (Fla. 4th DCA 1994) (holding that the trial court erred in failing to make findings detailing the breakdown of reasonable hours expended among the various personnel in attorney’s office). Here, no evidence was introduced by the Wife’s attorney to support the award of attorney’s fees or costs.
We therefore reverse the order awarding attorney’s fees and costs to the Wife. We do not remand for a new hearing, because the Wife failed to introduce any evidence supporting the award of fees and costs. See Warner, 692 So.2d at 268 (holding that if a party fails to present any evidence to establish its attorney fee claim, that party is not entitled to a second opportunity to prove the claim).
Reversed.
STRINGER and DAVIS, JJ., Concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
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Baker v. Baker, 35 So. 3d 76 (Fla. 2d DCA 2010)…e the appealed order to the extent that it awarded $7500 in temporary attorney’s fees. The Husband contends that because the Wife failed to produce evidence supporting the fee award, no remand is required. The Husband cites to Braswell v. Braswell, 4 So. 3d 4 (Fla. 2d DCA 2009), a case dealing with a final order on attorney’s fees. However, a temporary award does not create vested rights, and the trial court may modify or vacate a temporary [*78] award at any time during the litigation. Ghay, 954 So. 2d…
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Drew Schreiber v. Schreiber, 331 So. 3d 874 (Fla. 5th DCA 2021)…stent with our own precedent and with that from our sister courts reversing without benefit of remand due to a complete absence of evidence, our reversal is without benefit of remand for another evidentiary hearing. See, e.g., Braswell v. Braswell, 4 So. 3d 4, 5 (Fla. 2d DCA 2009) (reversing without remand because former wife failed to introduce any evidence supporting her claim for fees and former wife’s attorney merely stated the total fees and costs sought at the hearing); Faircloth, 917 So. 2d at 100…
Authorities Cited
- Warner v. Warner, 692 So. 2d 266 (Fla. 5th DCA 1997)
- Brewer v. Solovsky, 945 So. 2d 610 (Fla. 4th DCA 2006)
- Tucker v. Tucker, 513 So. 2d 733 (Fla. 2d DCA 1987)
- Carlson v. Carlson, 639 So. 2d 1094 (Fla. 4th DCA 1994)