Skip to Content

State Court Disregards State Law Authorizing Award of Attorneys’ Fees in Arbitration Dispute Governed by FAA
April 28, 2022

The Nevada Supreme Court affirmed the denial of attorneys’ fees pursuant to section 38.243, N.R.S. and in association with the confirmation of an arbitration award. The Nevada statute provides “on application of a prevailing party to a contested judicial proceeding under [Nevada laws seeking confirmation, vacatur, or modification of an arbitration award], the court may add reasonable attorney’s fees and other reasonable expenses of litigation incurred.”

The Nevada Supreme Court first affirmed the lower court’s confirmation of the arbitration award, finding that the arbitrator had not exceeded its authority in rendering the award. The court then recognized that a court may not award attorneys’ fees “absent authority under a statute, rule, or contract.” Despite Nevada law authorizing such an award, the Nevada Supreme Court noted that the parties both agreed that the FAA governed judicial review of this particular arbitration award, and because neither the FAA nor the arbitration agreement itself authorized an award of post-arbitration attorneys’ fees or costs, the lower state court was correct in denying fees, contrary Nevada law notwithstanding.

In re Petition of CLA Properties LLC, No. 80427 (Nev. Mar. 17, 2022).
Authored By
Image: Benjamin E. Stearns
Benjamin E. Stearns
Related Practices
Reinsurance
©2026 Carlton Fields, P.A. Carlton Fields practices law in California through Carlton Fields, LLP. Carlton Fields publications should not be construed as legal advice on any specific facts or circumstances. The contents are intended for general information and educational purposes only, and should not be relied on as if it were advice about a particular fact situation. The distribution of this publication is not intended to create, and receipt of it does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship with Carlton Fields. This publication may not be quoted or referred to in any other publication or proceeding without the prior written consent of the firm, to be given or withheld at our discretion. To request reprint permission for any of our publications, please use our Contact Us form via the link below. The views set forth herein are the personal views of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the firm. This site may contain hypertext links to information created and maintained by other entities. Carlton Fields does not control or guarantee the accuracy or completeness of this outside information, nor is the inclusion of a link to be intended as an endorsement of those outside sites.

Disclaimer

The information on this website is presented as a service for our clients and Internet users and is not intended to be legal advice, nor should you consider it as such. Although we welcome your inquiries, please keep in mind that merely contacting us will not establish an attorney-client relationship between us. Consequently, you should not convey any confidential information to us until a formal attorney-client relationship has been established. Please remember that electronic correspondence on the internet is not secure and that you should not include sensitive or confidential information in messages. With that in mind, we look forward to hearing from you.