phoenixwright
New Member
Hi! Cool site you all have here, I hope you all can help me out with this one! I had a question about the "Attorney's Fees" clause for a "Terms of Use" page that I'm making for a small business website based in Texas.
This is what I've got so far:
"In any action to enforce these Terms of Use, STORENAMEHERE will be entitled to costs and attorney's fees."
What do you guys think? I figured it's safer to unilaterally stipulate that only the website is entitled to recover attorney's fees, but I read somewhere that Texas statutory law only gives that right to prevailing claimants. Is that true? I've heard it's more likely for a business to be defending against claims in court, so I'd assume then that it would be better to rewrite it as an American-rule, pay-your-own clause. But would that cut off the claimant's statutory right of recovery under Texas jurisdiction?
Also, is it alright that I'm narrowing the scope of the "Attorney's Fees" clause specifically to the contract? Or should I be expanding the scope of the clause to any related disputes? (i.e., non-contractual, tort, statutory, etc.)? To me it seems like it would be beneficial to the website if the unilateral nature of the clause extended to any related disputes, but without knowing if the unilateral nature of the clause even holds water in court, I wouldn't want to unnecessarily expand the scope of the clause if it could wind up hurting the website.
Any suggestions for a better wording of my "Attorney's Fees" clause would be greatly appreciated, thank you all very much!
This is what I've got so far:
"In any action to enforce these Terms of Use, STORENAMEHERE will be entitled to costs and attorney's fees."
What do you guys think? I figured it's safer to unilaterally stipulate that only the website is entitled to recover attorney's fees, but I read somewhere that Texas statutory law only gives that right to prevailing claimants. Is that true? I've heard it's more likely for a business to be defending against claims in court, so I'd assume then that it would be better to rewrite it as an American-rule, pay-your-own clause. But would that cut off the claimant's statutory right of recovery under Texas jurisdiction?
Also, is it alright that I'm narrowing the scope of the "Attorney's Fees" clause specifically to the contract? Or should I be expanding the scope of the clause to any related disputes? (i.e., non-contractual, tort, statutory, etc.)? To me it seems like it would be beneficial to the website if the unilateral nature of the clause extended to any related disputes, but without knowing if the unilateral nature of the clause even holds water in court, I wouldn't want to unnecessarily expand the scope of the clause if it could wind up hurting the website.
Any suggestions for a better wording of my "Attorney's Fees" clause would be greatly appreciated, thank you all very much!
