NCJ Number
151717
Journal
Trial Volume: 30 Issue: 9 Dated: (September 1994) Pages: 59-61
Date Published
1994
Length
3 pages
Annotation
To contain legal costs, many law firms are hiring more paralegals, or legal assistants. As a results, the right to recover the cost or value of their services has emerged as an important legal issue.
Abstract
Courts that have considered the issue have come to two basic, but different, conclusions. Some courts have recognized the prevailing practice of billing separately for paralegals and have allowed recovery as a separate element of an attorney award fee when reimbursement of costs or attorney fees is permitted. Some courts, which fail to consider costs related to paralegal work as compensable, have ruled that fees associated with legal assistants are no different from other costs of running a law firm, and have denied recovery. There are at least seven Federal statutes that allow, or have been interpreted as allowing, an award of paralegal fees to prevailing parties. Most courts which have allowed reimbursement have established several criteria to be met: the paralegal services must be legal in nature, rather than clerical; the assistant must have worked under a lawyer's supervision; the paralegal must be qualified through education or training to perform substantive legal work; the amount of time spent by the paralegal must be reasonable; and the amount charged must reflect reasonable community standards. 31 notes