House Bill 1397 Summary

• Requires courts to award attorney's fees to the prevailing party in all civil actions, effective July 1, 2011.

• Changes the standard from discretionary ("may award") to mandatory ("shall award") for attorney's fees in civil cases.

• Removes previous limitations requiring courts to find that a party brought frivolous, unreasonable, or groundless claims or defenses before awarding fees.

• Prevents double recovery by stating prevailing parties cannot recover the same attorney's fees twice in related abuse of process actions.

• Directs the legislative services agency to prepare corrective legislation in the 2012 regular session to address statutes affected by this change.