Sponsors (2)
The bill expands mandatory fee-shifting to successful litigants and acquitted defendants—lowering financial barriers and increasing accountability for government action—while raising expected taxpayer costs and creating incentives that could chill prosecutions, increase litigation pressure on agencies, and burden courts.
Defendants and private plaintiffs (including people with disabilities, uninsured individuals, government contractors, and federal employees) will receive mandatory awards of reasonable attorney fees and litigation expenses when they prevail against the United States or are not convicted at trial, reducing out-of-pocket legal costs and financial barriers to challenging government action.
Mandatory fee-shifting creates more predictable litigation budgeting for plaintiffs and their counsel, making the costs and potential recovery of litigation more certain.
Requiring fee awards when prosecutions or government litigation fail increases financial accountability for the Department of Justice and federal agencies and may deter weak or frivolous government actions.
Taxpayers will likely face higher federal payouts because the government must pay mandatory attorney fees and litigation costs when it loses, increasing federal legal expenditures.
Prosecutors may be discouraged from bringing borderline, novel, or difficult cases out of concern for mandatory fee liability if they lose, potentially reducing enforcement of federal criminal laws.
Federal agencies may face increased defensive litigation pressure and higher legal expenses, potentially diverting agency resources away from programmatic work.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Requires courts to award reasonable attorney’s fees and litigation costs against the United States in certain criminal trials and civil cases under 28 U.S.C. 2412, and updates fiscal-year/effective-date language.
Requires federal courts to award reasonable attorney’s fees and litigation costs against the United States in more cases. It changes existing statutes so that courts “shall” (not just “may”) award fees in certain criminal trials that proceed to verdicts that are not convictions and in civil cases authorized by 28 U.S.C. 2412, and it updates a fiscal-year and effective-date reference to 2026 and the act’s enactment date.
Introduced September 18, 2025 by Rich McCormick · Last progress September 18, 2025