S. 1836 · 108th Congress
Legal Expense Equity Act of 2003
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Never voted on. It didn't reach a floor vote before the 108th Congress ended, so it expired. A bill has to be introduced again to be considered in a new Congress.
R
GrahamSponsor2 cosponsors · 2 R
2 signed on when it was introduced; the rest joined later. Cosponsors who withdrew aren't shown.
Legal Expense Equity Act of 2003 - Amends the Federal judicial code to authorize parties in civil diversity litigation to serve written settlement offers on an adverse party at any time not less than 10 days before trial.
What it does: CRS summary · Introduced in Senate · Nov 6, 2003
Legal Expense Equity Act of 2003 - Amends the Federal judicial code to authorize parties in civil diversity litigation to serve written settlement offers on an adverse party at any time not less than 10 days before trial.
Authorizes the court, at any time before judgment is entered, to exempt from settlement any claim that presents a novel and important question of law or fact that substantially affects nonparties. Voids all settlement offers made by the parties with respect to such exempted claims.
Authorizes an offeror whose proposed settlement was declined by an offeree to file a petition with the court seeking payment by the offeree of costs and fees, including attorney's fees, from the date of the last settlement offer by either party if the ultimate judgment or order is not more favorable to the offeree than the proposed settlement. Requires the court to order payment by the offeree in such circumstances unless requiring payment would be manifestly unjust.
Limits attorney's fees ordered under this Act to: (1) the actual attorney's fees incurred by the offeree in connection with the claim; or (2) if no such cost was incurred due to a contingency fee agreement, a reasonable cost that would have been incurred by the offeree absent a contingency fee agreement.
States that this Act does not apply to claims seeking equitable remedies.
Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov
About this bill and sources
Official title: Legal Expense Equity Act of 2003
Latest action (Nov 6, 2003): Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Policy area: Law · Origin: Senate · Introduced: Nov 6, 2003
Official page on Congress.gov · Bill text (GovInfo) · Status record (XML)
No recorded floor vote found.