§ 9-15-16.Limitations on recovery of attorney fees, court costs, or expenses of litigation; utilization of contingent fee agreements

Georgia has more than one statute that shifts attorney’s fees, court costs, or litigation expenses to a losing or misbehaving party — this chapter alone includes Code Sections 9-15-14 and 9-15-15, and Code Section 9-11-68 adds another route in tort cases. This section, enacted in 2025, addresses what happens when more than one of those statutes could apply to the same fees. Subsection (a) bars a party from recovering the same attorney’s fees, court costs, or expenses of litigation more than once under one or more fee-shifting statutes, whether those statutes authorize the award for compensatory or punitive purposes, unless a statute specifically authorizes duplicate recovery.

Subsection (b) addresses a different problem: how a party proves its fees are reasonable. When a party seeks fees under a statute authorizing an award of reasonable attorney’s fees, a contingent fee agreement between that party and its attorney can’t be offered as proof that the fees claimed are reasonable. That keeps a percentage-based fee arrangement from being used to justify a dollar figure under a statute asking the court to assess reasonableness on its own terms.

Subsection (c) closes the section by making clear it doesn’t touch contract law. Nothing here limits or diminishes any contractual right to recover attorney’s fees, court costs, or expenses of litigation — a fee-shifting clause in a private agreement operates independently of the statutory limits this section imposes.