§ 38.003.Presumption

An evidentiary shortcut, stated in two sentences.

It is presumed that the usual and customary attorney's fees for a claim of the type described in the general fee section are reasonable. The presumption may be rebutted.

The presumption reduces what a claimant must prove in the ordinary case. Without it, every fee application would require affidavit or testimony establishing prevailing rates from the ground up, in cases where the amounts are often modest and the rates uncontroversial.

The rebuttal clause is not decoration. The presumption is a starting point, not a ceiling or a guarantee. An opposing party who puts on evidence that the hours were excessive, the rates above market, or the work unnecessary shifts the question back to proof — and the presumption does nothing to establish that the fees claimed were reasonable in amount for this case.

Read with the judicial notice section, which lets the court take notice of usual and customary fees and of the case file without further evidence, the two provisions together make a simple fee award possible on a thin record while leaving a contested one to ordinary proof.