(1) In any civil litigation resulting from an act or practice involving a violation of this part, except as provided in subsection (5), the prevailing party, after judgment in the trial court and exhaustion of all appeals, if any, may receive his or her reasonable attorney’s fees and costs from the nonprevailing party.

(2) The attorney for the prevailing party shall submit a sworn affidavit of his or her time spent on the case and his or her costs incurred for all the motions, hearings, and appeals to the trial judge who presided over the civil case.

(3) The trial judge may award the prevailing party the sum of reasonable costs incurred in the action plus a reasonable legal fee for the hours actually spent on the case as sworn to in an affidavit.

(4) Any award of attorney’s fees or costs shall become a part of the judgment and subject to execution as the law allows.

(5) In any civil litigation initiated by the enforcing authority, the court may award to the prevailing party reasonable attorney’s fees and costs if the court finds that there was a complete absence of a justiciable issue of either law or fact raised by the losing party or if the court finds bad faith on the part of the losing party.

(6) In any administrative proceeding or other nonjudicial action initiated by an enforcing authority, the attorney for the enforcing authority may certify by sworn affidavit the number of hours and the cost thereof to the enforcing authority for the time spent in the investigation and litigation of the case plus costs reasonably incurred in the action. Payment to the enforcing authority of the sum of such costs may be made by stipulation of the parties a part of the final order or decree disposing of the matter. The affidavit shall be attached to and become a part of such order or decree.

History.—s. 1, ch. 73-124; s. 5, ch. 79-386; s. 11, ch. 93-38; s. 4, ch. 94-298; s. 632, ch. 97-103.

Note.—Former s. 501.210.