Tampa Attorneys’ Fee Expert Witness

Last updated on October 21, 2026

When a court has to decide how much one side must pay for the other side’s lawyers, the answer often turns on expert testimony. C. Todd Marks of Westchase Law, P.A., serves as an attorneys’ fee expert witness in Florida courts, giving independent opinions on whether the hours billed and the rates charged are reasonable.

Mr. Marks has practiced law in Florida for over 25 years. His experience with hourly billing practices, rate setting, fee agreements, and the review of attorney and paralegal time entries and invoices lets him explain to a judge, in plain terms, what a reasonable fee looks like in a particular case.

What A Fee Expert Does

A fee expert gives the court an independent, professional opinion on the amount of a reasonable attorneys’ fee. Mr. Marks’s work typically includes:

• Reviewing the billing records and the file. He reviews the invoices, time entries, fee agreement, pleadings, motions, orders, and correspondence to understand what work was done and why.
• Opinions on reasonable hours. He identifies time that is reasonable, and time that may be excessive, duplicative, clerical, block billed, or unrelated to the claim on which fees are awarded.
• Opinions on reasonable hourly rates. He compares the rates charged to the rates customarily charged in the community by lawyers of similar skill, experience, and reputation.
• Lodestar analysis. He multiplies reasonable hours by reasonable rates to reach the lodestar figure, the starting point for a Florida fee award.
• Multipliers and adjustments. He addresses whether any upward or downward adjustment to the lodestar is supported under current Florida law.
• Affidavits and expert reports. He prepares written opinions, with schedules of the time entries reviewed, for filing or exchange before the hearing.
• Testimony. He testifies at depositions and at evidentiary hearings on attorneys’ fees, and he is available to assist counsel in preparing to cross-examine the opposing fee expert.

Mr. Marks is retained by both sides: by parties and firms seeking a fee award, and by parties challenging the amount claimed. His opinion is his own in either role.

Florida Law On Attorneys’ Fee Awards

The lodestar method. In Florida Patient’s Compensation Fund v. Rowe, 472 So. 2d 1145 (Fla. 1985), the Florida Supreme Court decided to adopt the federal lodestar approach for computing reasonable attorneys’ fees. The court first determines the number of hours reasonably expended, then the reasonable hourly rate, and multiplies the two. The court’s order must set out specific findings on the hours, the rate, and any reduction or enhancement. Id. at 1150-52. The multiplier ranges Rowe described were later modified by Quanstrom and by section 57.104(2), discussed below.

The Rule 4-1.5 factors. Rowe directs courts to the factors now found in Rule 4-1.5(b)(1) of the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar, which include the time and labor required, the novelty and difficulty of the questions involved, the skill required, the likelihood that accepting the matter will preclude other employment by the lawyer, the fee customarily charged in the locality for similar services, the amount involved and the results obtained, time limitations, the nature and length of the professional relationship, the experience, reputation, and ability of the lawyer, and whether the fee is fixed or contingent. The rule guides the court in deciding what fee is reasonable; it does not by itself entitle a party to recover fees from the other side.

Contingency risk multipliers. In Standard Guaranty Insurance Co. v. Quanstrom, 555 So. 2d 828 (Fla. 1990), the Florida Supreme Court divided fee cases into three categories (public policy enforcement cases, tort and contract claims, and family law, eminent domain, and estate and trust matters) and explained when a contingency fee multiplier may be considered in each. Id. at 833-35. Under Quanstrom, a multiplier is never mandatory. In 2023, the Legislature amended section 57.104, Florida Statutes (chapter 2023-15, Laws of Florida, effective March 24, 2023), to provide that in any action in which the court determines or awards attorney fees, “there is a strong presumption that a lodestar fee is sufficient and reasonable,” which “may be overcome only in a rare and exceptional circumstance with evidence that competent counsel could not otherwise be retained.” The 2023 amendment generally applies to causes of action filed after its effective date, so it does not automatically govern every pending case. Section 57.104 also requires the court to consider the time of legal assistants who provided nonclerical, meaningful legal support under an attorney’s supervision.

Independent expert testimony. In Crittenden Orange Blossom Fruit v. Stone, 514 So. 2d 351 (Fla. 1987), the Florida Supreme Court recited the traditional rule that expert testimony is needed to prove a reasonable attorneys’ fee. Its holding, however, allowed a workers’ compensation fee award based on counsel’s detailed affidavit without expert testimony, unless a party requests a hearing. Id. at 352-53. Florida’s district courts of appeal have long required independent expert testimony, beyond the testimony of the lawyer seeking the fee, to support a contested fee award. In Ruffenach v. Deutsche Bank National Trust Co., 431 So. 3d 1055 (Fla. 6th DCA 2026), reh’g denied (Apr. 8, 2026), the Sixth District Court of Appeal called Crittenden’s general statement about expert testimony dictum and held that independent expert testimony is not invariably required. The court also held that no evidentiary hearing is needed unless there are material factual disputes beyond the rates and hours claimed. Detailed billing records remain essential: the court reversed the award in that case because they were lacking. The Sixth District certified conflict with the other district courts. That conflict is unresolved, so practice varies by district, and many courts still expect independent expert testimony. A party who wants a fee award to hold up should be ready with detailed billing records and qualified, independent expert testimony.

Common grounds for shifting fees. Florida follows the American rule: each side pays its own lawyers unless a contract or statute provides otherwise. Common grounds include:

• Contract. A prevailing party attorneys’ fee provision. Section 57.105(7), Florida Statutes, makes a one-sided contractual fee provision reciprocal for contracts entered into on or after October 1, 1988.
• Unsupported claims or defenses. Under section 57.105(1), the court shall award a reasonable fee when a party or its lawyer knew or should have known that a claim or defense was not supported by the material facts or by then-existing law. A party’s motion is subject to the 21-day safe harbor in section 57.105(4), and the court may also act on its own initiative. Section 57.105(3) provides good-faith exceptions.
• Proposals for settlement. Under section 768.79, Florida Statutes, a defendant whose offer is rejected may recover reasonable fees incurred from the date the offer was served if the judgment is one of no liability or is at least 25 percent less than the offer. A plaintiff whose offer is rejected may recover reasonable fees incurred from the date the offer was served if the judgment is at least 25 percent more than the offer.
• Other statutes. Many Florida and federal statutes provide for fees in specific kinds of cases, including family law, consumer, insurance, and construction lien matters.

Need An Experienced Attorneys’ Fee Expert?

Contact C. Todd Marks at Westchase Law, P.A., to discuss your fee dispute, the records involved, and your hearing schedule. Call 813-490-5211 or 877-259-2394, or reach us through our contact page.