Rachal v. Rachal

REILLY, Chief Judge, Retired,

concurring:

In joining in Judge Terry’s opinion, I should like to make an additional comment on the legal fee issue. The authority of a court to require one party in a divorce action to pay counsel fees incurred by the other spouse derives entirely from statute, as such awards are at odds with the so-called American rule, which makes each litigant in a civil action, irrespective of the outcome of the case, shoulder the burden of paying his own lawyer. Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. v. Wilderness Society, 421 U.S. 240, 95 S.Ct. 1612, 44 L.Ed.2d 141 (1975); see also In…