A bill, entitled "Small Business and Individual Regulatory Relief Act," to amend title 28 of the United States Code to provide for the payment of reasonable attorney's fees and other costs in certain civil actions.

Summary

Authorizes a court to award reasonable attorney fees to the prevailing party in any civil action brought by or against the United States, where the court may award such fees in such suits involving private parties (thus applying to Government litigation the common law exceptions to the "American rule" which requires parties to be responsible for their own attorney fees). Entitles: (1) a defendant who is the prevailing party in any civil action in which the United States is a plaintiff; (2) the prevailing party (other than the United States) in any tax action; and (3) the prevailing party in any action for judicial review of an agency adjudication, to a judgment for reasonable attorney fees and costs. Stipulates that such awards in administrative adjudication shall be paid by the particular agency over which the party prevails, but prohibits authorization of appropriations to such agency for the specific purpose of such payments. Directs the Administrative Office of the United States Courts to report annually on the amount of fees and expenses awarded during the preceding fiscal year in such agency adjudications and civil actions.

This text is taken from the official record. PoliticalRepo does not editorialize.

Timeline

No timeline events have been ingested for this record yet.

Votes

No vote records are attached yet.

Versions

No version snapshots stored. Document URLs remain at the source.

Documents

1 official file

• Introduced in Senate

  summary · EN · 21 June 1979

  Open at official source

Sponsors

No sponsors or actors listed by the source.

Related records

No cross-record relationships stored yet.