New Hampshire: Fees on Fees May Be Awarded to Successful Claimant

Pursuant to N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 281-A:44, VI, an injured worker was entitled to reimbursement of reasonable attorney’s fees and costs that she incurred in successfully litigating an attorney fee dispute, held the Supreme Court of New Hampshire. The Court acknowledged that, except where allowed by specific statute, the usual rule in New Hampshire was for each party to bear the expense of his or her own litigation, including attorney’s fees. The Legislature had seen fit to allow fees within the workers’ compensation context to encourage claimants to obtain, and attorneys to provide, representation. A fee award for successfully prosecuting a request for attorney’s fees on the underlying claim was appropriate under the statute.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is the co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Appeal of Desmarais (N.H. Comp. Appeals Bd.), 2017 N.H. LEXIS 127 (June 16, 2017)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 133.02.

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law