00SENATE BILL NO. 123                                                                                                   
01 "An Act relating to public interest litigants and to attorney fees; and amending                                        
02 Rule 82, Alaska Rules of Civil Procedure."                                                                              
03 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                               
04    * Section 1.  AS 09.60.010 is amended to read:                                                                     
05  Sec. 09.60.010.  Costs and attorney fees allowed prevailing party.  The                                             
06 supreme court shall determine by rule or order the costs, if any, that may be allowed                                   
07 a prevailing party in a civil action.  Unless specifically authorized by statute or by                                  
08 agreement between the parties, attorney fees may not be awarded to a party in a civil                                   
09 action for personal injury, death, or property damage related to or arising out of fault,                               
10 as defined in AS 09.17.900, unless the civil action is contested without trial, or fully                                
11 contested as determined by the court.   Attorney fees may only be awarded to or                                        
12 against a public interest litigant as provided in Rule 82(g), Alaska Rules of Civil                                     
13 Procedure, on the effective date of this Act.                                                                          
14    * Sec. 2.  Rule 82, Alaska Rules of Civil Procedure, is amended by adding a new                                    

01 subsection to read:                                                                                                     
02  (g) Apportionment of Attorney's Fees for Public Interest Litigants.  When                                           
03 awarding attorney's fees to a public interest litigant, the court shall apportion the fees                              
04 by issues presented in the pleadings and may award fees only for an issue upon which                                    
05 the public interest litigant was the prevailing party.  In a case that goes to trial, the                               
06 court shall award a prevailing public interest litigant 30 percent of the litigant's                                    
07 reasonable actual attorney's fees that were necessarily incurred on issues upon which                                   
08 the litigant was the prevailing party and shall, in a case resolved without trial, award                                
09 the prevailing public interest litigant 20 percent of the litigant's reasonable actual                                  
10 attorney's fees that were necessarily incurred on each issue upon which the litigant was                                
11 the prevailing party.  If the court finds that an issue presented by a public interest                                  
12 litigant upon which the litigant was not the prevailing party was not well grounded in                                  
13 fact, or was not warranted by existing law or a good faith argument for the extension,                                  
14 modification, or reversal of existing law, the court may award attorney's fees under (b)                                
15 of this rule to the party prevailing on that issue.                                                                     
16    * Sec. 3.  Section 1 of this Act takes effect only if sec. 2 of this Act receives the two-thirds                   
17 majority vote of each house required by art. IV, sec. 15, Constitution of the State of Alaska.