Recover own attorney fees? Forum

[turbotong]

Hypothetically if you filed a lawsuit for yourself as a law student and won (presumably on something that allows recovery of attorney's fees), would you be able to recover attorney fees for yourself since you are just a student?
What if you are employed by a law firm who bills you out a $XXX per hour and pays you at least $YY per hour, and you had to give up working time to file this lawsuit for yourself?

[ggocat]

Hypothetically if you filed a lawsuit for yourself as a law student and won (presumably on something that allows recovery of attorney's fees), would you be able to recover attorney fees for yourself since you are just a student?
What if you are employed by a law firm who bills you out a $XXX per hour and pays you at least $YY per hour, and you had to give up working time to file this lawsuit for yourself?

Answers to your questions will depend on your state/jurisdiction, and likely the exact statute authorizing attorney's fees. If you want an answer, you will need to do the legal research yourself or ask (and pay for) an attorney.

For example, in my state some statutes authorize attorney's fees that are "incurred." The state supreme court has interpreted these statutes to prohibit the recovery attorney's fees as a pro se litigant, regardless of whether you are a lawyer, law student, or anything else. See Jackson v. State Office of Administrative Hearings, 351 S.W.3d 290, 299 (Tex. 2011).

[Reprisal]

Google:

1) American Rule
2) Rule 37 fee sanctions
3) Punitive fee shifting
4) Appellate fee shifting
5) Common Fund Doctrine
6) [Local jurisdiction rules]

[ggocat]

Lol also just look up on Wikipedia for the federal standard: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro_se_leg ... orney_fees

The Supreme Court has held that where a statute permits attorney's fees to be awarded to the prevailing party, the attorney who prevails in a case brought under a federal statute as a pro se litigant is not entitled to an award of attorney's fees.

[I.P. Daly]

Man, people are so dang clever.

[bdubs]

Even if they did award fees to pro se litigants, the market value of your time as an independent, unlicensed law student is practically zero.