Hacket v Stanley Works, U.S. District Court, D. Conn., No H-84-1222(PCD), June 22, 1988
In a recent case in which plaintiff prevailed and there was a statutory provision to recover attorney's fees, plaintiff attempted to include expert witness fees as a recoverable attorney fee. Defendant opposed arguing that the fee award with respect to the expert witness fees should be disallowed.
The court held that because plaintiff's counsel had retained the expert witnesses for consulting services and was responsible for their fees, it was appropriate to include the experts' fees in the attorney's fees provided that detailed records of the experts activities were provided.
It is a common practice for an expert to be retained by the attorney. Often the expert never even meets the attorney's client. While the attorney is entitled to reimbursement from his client for such fees, the expert looks to the attorney for his payments. A standard clause in many expert's billing practices form holds the attorney responsible for all fees to an expert he retained.
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