{"id":901771,"date":"2023-10-24T11:57:46","date_gmt":"2023-10-24T17:57:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=901771"},"modified":"2023-10-24T12:00:07","modified_gmt":"2023-10-24T18:00:07","slug":"attorney-fees-provision-virginia-construction-contracts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/attorney-fees-provision-virginia-construction-contracts\/","title":{"rendered":"Construction Contract Basics: Attorney Fee Provisions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Christopher G. Hill | <a href=\"https:\/\/constructionlawva.com\/construction-contract-basics-attorney-fee-provisions\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Construction Law Musings<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have discussed the need for\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/attorney-fees-provisions-must-contracts\/\">attorney fee provisions<\/a>\u00a0in your construction contracts in prior posts here at\u00a0Construction Law Musings, but thought it merited a restatement of the reasons for the inclusion of such fee provisions (and changing of such provisions when presented) here with the second of my\u00a0construction contract basics\u00a0posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Why would you want such a provision?\u00a0 The answer is that without it, or a statute specifically allowing for such fees, a Virginia court will not award your attorney fees without such a provision.\u00a0 Virginia, and a lot of other states, follow the so-called \u201cAmerican Rule\u201d when it comes to attorney fees and costs.\u00a0 In short, that rule states that the parties to litigation pay their own way unless they agree otherwise.\u00a0 While it may seem unfair to make a successful litigant pay for the privilege of being right, that is the rule in Virginia.\u00a0 Throw in the fact that Virginia courts\u00a0strictly construe construction contracts\u00a0and\u00a0<em>voila<\/em>\u00a0we have a situation where without a provision in the contract stating that one party or both will be able to collect attorney fees should that contractor or subcontractor prevail, a construction professional that gets sued (whether rightly or wrongly) will be left with a hefty attorney fees bill and no way to recoup those fees through the courts or any other method.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A well-stated provision on fees that states unequivocally that the \u201csubstantially prevailing\u201d party is entitled to collect its fees as part of a judgment enforcing contractual rights, drafted by an\u00a0experienced Virginia construction lawyer, will be construed literally and a Court will award attorney fees (how much will be determined at trial).\u00a0 Having one of these clauses does not mean that your attorney is working on a contingency.\u00a0 It does however entitle you to collect those fees after the fact once you have prevailed in your construction contract-related lawsuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One caveat (at least here in VA) is that Virginia, unlike some other states, allows for \u201cone-way\u201d attorney fee provisions.&nbsp; In other words, the contract may read that the drafting party will be allowed to collect its fees should it go to court, but the non-drafting (usually \u201cdownstream\u201d) party cannot.&nbsp; Be on the lookout for these sorts of provisions in the indemnity, default, and, unsurprisingly, in the dispute resolution portions of a construction contract.&nbsp; Frankly, it would be better for the downstream party to simply strike all references to attorney fees rather than agree to this sort of one-sided provision.&nbsp; I prefer the prevailing party language over no provision at all for the reasons stated earlier, but to allow for such an imbalanced attorney fee provision is far from ideal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a world where\u00a0Murphy was an optimist, a well-drafted and enforced attorney\u2019s fee provision in your construction contract is a necessity.\u00a0 Without it, you could be left holding a large lawyer\u2019s bill with no way to recover those costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When one of your cases is in need of a construction expert, estimates, insurance appraisal or umpire services in defect or insurance disputes &#8211; please call Advise &amp; Consult, Inc. at 888.684.8305, or email <a href=\"mailto:experts@adviseandconsult.net\">experts@adviseandconsult.net<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Christopher G. Hill | Construction Law Musings I have discussed the need for\u00a0attorney fee provisions\u00a0in your construction contracts in prior posts here at\u00a0Construction Law Musings, but thought it merited a restatement of the reasons for the inclusion of such fee provisions (and changing of such provisions when presented) here with the second of my\u00a0construction contract&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/attorney-fees-provision-virginia-construction-contracts\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Construction Contract Basics: Attorney Fee Provisions<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[9895,142,224,357],"class_list":["post-901771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-construction-contracts","tag-advise-consult","tag-attorneys-fees","tag-construction-contract","tag-virginia","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Construction Contract Basics: Attorney Fee Provisions - Advise &amp; 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