Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Divorce

In order for a court to award attorney’s fees and costs to one party in a Florida divorce, competent and substantial evidence must be presented to the court by the party asking for the fees. This usually includes attorney invoices showing the specific rate of the attorney, the tasks performed by the attorney and the time spent on each task. This was an issue in the case Schreiber v. Schreiber 5D20-2684 (Fla. 5th DCA December 30, 2021).

As part of the parties’ divorce case, the court dissolved their marriage but reserved on the issue of entitlement to attorney’s fees. An initial hearing was held after which the trial court instructed the former wife to provide her attorney’s billing invoices to the former husband. A second hearing was held at which the former wife presented expert testimony regarding the fees she incurred, but hearsay objections were sustained when the former wife tried to enter her attorney’s billing invoices into evidence because the attorneys were not present to testify about them. The trial court ultimately entered an order that required the former husband to pay over $50,000 to the former wife for her attorney’s fees. The former husband appealed.

The appellate court held “In the instant case, Former Wife presented solely expert testimony of fees; there was no properly authenticated fee affidavit or testimony from any of Former Wife’s attorneys, nor did Former Wife introduce into evidence, or even proffer, any time sheets or billing records from any of Former Wife’s attorneys. Former Wife’s failure to adduce competent evidence of fees resulted in a complete lack of evidence on which a fee award could properly be based and requires reversal.” Next the court considered whether to give the former wife another opportunity to present the proper evidence for her fee request. The court held “The remaining question is whether we should remand for Former Wife to have another opportunity to present competent evidence of her attorneys’ fees. We hold not. This Court has consistently held that a party must have presented some competent evidence of fees at the fee hearing in order to justify remand for another opportunity to prove fees after reversal.”

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