Mercantile Adjustment Bureau, L.L.C., Petitioner/cross-Respondent v. Elizabeth Flood, Respondent/cross-Petitioner

Summary

The court held that trial counsel's payment of appellate counsel's fees was permissible financial assistance under the litigation-expense exception to Rule 1.8(e), so the award of fees for the first two appeals was valid. It also held that the Colorado Appellate Rules do not govern appeals from county court to district court unless the applicable county-court procedures expressly incorporate them, and therefore Flood's separate request for fees in the third appeal was improperly denied. The court affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded for determination of reasonable fees and costs for the third appeal. Justice COATS, dissenting, would have rejected the fee award because the appellate attorneys' fees were not shown to be Flood's reasonable attorney fees and because the payment arrangement created the ethical risks Rule 1.8(e) was intended to limit.