Well, it’s not exactly what you might be thinking! The Florida Supreme Court, in its opinion In Re: Amendments to Uniform Guidelines for Taxation of Costs, 2005 Fla. LEXIS 2285 [Fla. 2005], has adopted proposed revisions to the guidelines especially since they met the criteria and concerns of the Court’s stated policy of “reducing the impact of costs upon parties, with the ultimate aim of decreasing the overall costliness of litigation.” Under these 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. The revisions are effective January 1, 2006.
Among the litigation expenses that may be taxed are Mediation Fees and Expenses, i.e. the costs and fees of the mediator.
By the way, I was at the Florida Supreme Court ADR Rules and Policy Committee meeting last week which is why no postings were made Wednesday through Friday last week. This is a marvelous committee and I’m honored to be a member!
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