Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Family Law Procedure
Amounts awarded to an attorney under a charging lien in a Florida divorce case are independent of amounts awarded from one spouse to the other by the court. This distinction was highlighted in the case Morales v. Morales, 3D23-0094 (Fla. 3d DCA January 3, 2024).
In the underlying divorce case, the trial court awarded attorney’s fees to the former wife from the former husband in the amount of a little less than $33,000.00 which was about half of the amount requested. In denying the full amount requested, the court found that in reviewing the former wife’s lawyer’s billing, “there were hours billed that were excessive, duplicative, billed as a result of block billing, and otherwise clerical.” Thereafter, the wife’s lawyer moved to enforce a charging lien. After a two-day hearing, the court entered a charging lien for over $38,000 in favor of the lawyer. The former wife appealed, arguing it was error for the court to award fees in excess of the fee award the court ordered against the former husband, since the court already found those fees to be excessive.
The appellate court first explained that “An attorney’s right to recover against their client is a separate issue [from a spouse’s duty to pay attorney’s fees to the other spouse] which can be pursued either via a charging lien or an independent action on the contract with their client.” The court concluded “Thus, the magistrate’s award of fees to the Wife to be paid by the Husband determined only the obligation between the Wife and Husband as it pertained to attorney’s fees and costs. It did not preclude the Wife’s counsel from pursuing a charging lien against the Wife for the remaining attorney’s fees and costs allegedly owed. The magistrate’s resolution of the equities between the Wife and Husband had no bearing on counsel’s contractual rights under the contract with his client, the Wife. Having established it was within the trial court’s power to grant the Wife’s counsel a charging lien in an amount exceeding the attorney’s fees and costs the magistrate ordered the Husband to pay her, we are constrained to affirm the trial court’s order because the record on appeal is insufficient for us to determine the propriety of the charging lien amount as we do not have transcripts of the trial proceedings.”
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