Members of the construction industry who have been involved in litigation, either in court or arbitration, have learned the valuable lesson that attorney’s fees are a major component of their cases. Those fees must be carefully considered. That’s because unless there is an agreement or a statute that requires otherwise, the parties must pay their own attorney’s fees. They cannot be recovered from the losing parties. That is the “American Rule.”
In Colorado there are very few statutes that allow the recovery of attorney’s fees. In typical construction-related disputes, there are no Colorado statutes that allow the winning parties to recover their attorney’s fees. They either pay their own fees or they have provided otherwise in their contracts.