AWARDING ATTORNEY FEES IN A MATRIMONIAL

Litigation can be costly in a divorce when the income/asset spouse unnecessarily and aggressively prolongs the litigation.

Klein v Klein, 2019 NY Slip Op 08836, Decided on December 11, 2019, Appellate Division, Second Department:

"The decision to award an attorney's fee in a matrimonial action lies, in the first instance, in the discretion of the trial court and then in the Appellate Division whose discretionary authority is as broad as that of the trial court" (Black v Black, 140 AD3d 816, 816 [internal quotation marks omitted]; see Culen v Culen, 157 AD3d 930, 932). "In exercising that discretion, the court must consider the financial circumstances of the parties and the circumstances of the case as a whole, including the relative merits of the parties' positions" (Mueller v Mueller, 113 AD3d 660, 661; see Margolis v Cohen, 153 AD3d 1390; Matter of Weiss v Rosenthal, 135 AD3d 780, 781). Additionally, the court may also consider whether one party has engaged in conduct or taken positions resulting in a delay of the proceedings or engaged in unnecessary litigation (see Giallo-Uvino v Uvino, 165 AD3d 894, 897; Matter of Weiss v Rosenthal, 135 AD3d at 781; Prichep v Prichep, 52 AD3d 61, 64). Here, considering the disparity of income between the parties, the relative merits of the parties' positions, and the defendant's conduct that delayed the proceedings, the Supreme Court providently exercised its discretion in awarding the plaintiff attorney's fees in the sum of $40,000 and expert witness fees in the sum of $36,000, and in directing the defendant to pay $100,000 in attorney's fees directly to the plaintiff's attorney's law firm (see Romeo v Muenzler-Romeo, 169 AD3d 845, 846; Belilos v Rivera, 164 AD3d at 1415; Babinski v Babinski, 152 AD3d 477, 478; Chesner v Chesner, 95 AD3d 1252, 1253)."