Courts

Judge Drops Amazing 700-Word Footnote Dedicated To Finding Proper Legal Terminology For Attorney's Fees

This is deliciously nerdy -- and we love it!

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laptop shocked surpriseNo one loves grappling with questions of legal writing and English grammar and usage more than lawyers — and when judges get in on the game, it makes it even more entertaining. Take, for example, the thing that lawyers are constantly fighting about in court cases: their fees. It’s attorney’s fees, right? But wait, what if more than one lawyer involved — should that be attorneys’ fees? Ugh, who has time for that apostrophe… maybe it’s attorneys fees? Let’s simplify it even more, how about attorney fees?

This ever-changing terminology is something that really stuck in Magistrate Judge Andrew Edison’s (S.D. Tex.) craw, and he addressed it in a memorandum filed earlier this week, referring to the matter as “one of the burning legal questions of our generation.” In a 755-word footnote, noting that the issue had “kept [him] up many a night,” Edison wondered: “Is the proper term ‘attorney fees,’ ‘attorneys fees,’ ‘attorney’s fees,’ or ‘attorneys’ fees’?”

Get ready for a legal linguistics treat, because you’re about to get one.

Edison consulted circuit courts, federal rules, and federal statutes, only to discover that there’s no uniformity on this issue.

Attorneys Fees 1

Edison then turned to the Supreme Court style guide, hoping that he’d find a final answer there. But did he? Of course not.

Attorneys Fees 2

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Perhaps legal legend Bryan Garner has a clue? Please help the lawyers, Bryan, we’re all counting on you!

Attorneys Fees 3

It took all of Edison’s effort (and perhaps that of his clerk) to reach an entirely unsatisfactory conclusion: “there is no one right way to reference the fees awarded for work done by an attorney.” Here’s what Edison says he’ll be doing in the future when it comes to attorney’s/attorneys’/attorneys/attorney fees:

As the old saying goes, “different strokes work for different folks.” My preference going forward is as follows: I will use “attorney’s fees” to refer to fees sought by one lawyer and “attorneys’ fees” to refer to fees sought by more than one lawyer. I will eschew entirely “attorney fees” and “attorneys fees.”

Thanks to Judge Andrew Edison for taking us on this journey to decide on the proper terminology here. So, which variant will you be using in practice? You can email us or text us (646-820-8477) about what you think the proper term is.

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Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter and Threads or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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