Florida follows the American Rule on the entitlement to attorney fees in that the fees generally are not recoverable as an element of damages in the absence of statutory authority or a contractual agreement. However, civil litigators throughout Florida should be aware of a powerful yet seldom utilized exception to that general rule — the wrongful act doctrine.
The doctrine permits “a plaintiff to recover third-party litigation expenses as special damages where the defendant’s wrongful act caused the plaintiff to litigate with the third party.” More specifically, the doctrine provides that “where the wrongful act of the defendant has involved the claimant in litigation with others and has placed the claimant in such relation with others as makes it necessary to incur expenses to protect its interests, such costs and expenses, including reasonable attorney’s fees upon appropriate proof, may be recovered as an element of damages.”
