Recovering Costs in Civil Litigation
In civil cases, the winning or prevailing party can generally recover certain costs incurred in connection with the case. Note that costs do not include attorney fees. In any event, costs are typically recovered by filing a motion to tax costs after entry of judgment. However, sometimes costs are included the judgment making a motion unnecessary.
“On a motion to tax costs, it is the movant’s burden to show that the requested costs were reasonably necessary either to defend or prosecute the case at the time the action precipitating the costs was taken.” Winter Park Imps., Inc. v. JM Fam. Enters., 77 So. 3d 227, 230 (Fla. 5th DCA 2011). “The Florida Supreme Court has adopted the Statewide Uniform Guidelines for Taxation of Costs in Civil Actions (the Guidelines) to assist courts in determining the type of costs that should (or should not) be awarded to a prevailing party.” Id. “The Statewide Uniform Guidelines For Taxation of Costs in Civil Actions expressly states that the Guidelines are advisory only and that the taxation of costs in any particular proceeding is within the broad discretion of the trial court.” Landmark Winter Park, LLC v. Colman, 24 So. 3d 787, 788 (Fla. 5th DCA 2009).
The Statewide Uniform Guidelines for Taxation of Costs in Civil Actions, referenced above, appears as an appendix to the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure. They provide guidelines for what costs should, may, and cannot be recovered in a civil action. As noted above, the guidelines are “advisory only” and “[t]he taxation of costs in any particular proceeding is within the broad discretion of the trial court.” The guidelines go to state, a “trial court should exercise that discretion in a manner that is consistent with the policy of reducing the overall costs of litigation and of keeping such costs as low as justice will permit.” Under the guidelines, “it is the burden of the moving party to show that all requested costs were reasonably necessary either to defend or prosecute the case at the time the action precipitating the cost was taken.”
Civil Litigation Costs That Should Be Recovered
Costs related to: (1) depositions; (2) copies of documents and exhibits filed with the court, which are reasonably necessary to assist the court in reaching a conclusion and/or copies of documents and exhibits obtained in discovery, even if the copies were not used at trial; (3) reasonable fee for deposition and/or trial testimony of expert witnesses, and the costs of preparation of any court ordered report; (4) subpoenas, witness fees, and service of witnesses for deposition and/or trial; (5) reasonable court reporter’s fee for the reporting of evidentiary hearings, trial, and post-trial hearings; and (6) reasonable charges incurred for requiring special magistrates, guardians ad litem, and attorneys ad litem.
The recovery of expert witness fees as costs is also provided for by Fla. Stat. § 92.231(2). “That statute authorizes a witness fee for an expert or skilled witness who shall have testified in any cause.” Winter Park Imps., Inc., 77 So. 3d at 231. “[T]he trial court must determine that any expert witness fees incurred were reasonably necessary to defend the instant action.” Id. at 232. However, the Guidelines do not “specif[y] the factors that a trial court may consider when determining a reasonable fee for deposition or trial testimony.” Id. at 231. “However, given the broad discretion granted to the trial court, we conclude that a court is not precluded from considering the time an expert expended in preparing for deposition, including the time reasonably and necessarily spent when conferring with counsel and in formulating his or her expert opinion through examination, investigation, testing, and/or research.” Id.
Civil Litigation Costs That May Be Recovered
Costs related to: (1) mediation; (2) reasonable travel expenses of an expert when traveling in excess of 100 miles from their principal place of business (not to include the expert’s time); (3) reasonable travel expenses of witnesses; (3) producing copies of relevant electronic media in response to a discovery request; and (4) converting electronically stored information to a reasonably usable format in response to a discovery request that seeks production in such format.
Civil Litigation Costs That Should Not Be Recovered
Costs related to: (1) long distance telephone calls with witnesses, both expert and non-expert (including conferences concerning scheduling of depositions or requesting witnesses to attend trial); (2) any expenses relating to consulting but non-testifying experts; (3) any matter which was not reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence; and (4) travel time of attorney(s) and expert(s); (5) travel expenses of attorney(s); and (6) reviewing documents and/or electronically stored information to determine if a privilege applies.
Similarly, “appellate courts have consistently held that certain costs and expenses are not taxable because they are considered overhead.” Landmark Winter Park, LLC, 24 So. 3d at 788 (citations omitted). For example, “[p]ostage, fax transmissions, delivery service, and computer research are office expenses or overhead that should not be taxed as costs.” Robbins v. McGrath, 955 So. 2d 633, 635 (Fla. 1st DCA 2007) (citation omitted).