Florida Statute 57.041: Taxable Costs for the Prevailing Party

Florida Statute 57.041 gives the winner of a civil lawsuit an automatic right to recover litigation costs from the loser. The statute says the party who obtains the final judgment “shall recover all his or her legal costs and charges,” and those costs become part of the judgment itself.¹ “Shall” is the word that matters. Cost recovery is mandatory, not something a judge can refuse. But being entitled to costs and actually collecting them are two different problems, and the process has a hard 30-day deadline that catches people off guard.

Who Qualifies as the Winner

The statute awards costs to “the party recovering judgment.” That is not the same phrase as “prevailing party,” which appears in many attorney’s fee statutes and asks who won on the significant issues. The 57.041 standard is narrower and more mechanical: who got the final judgment? The Florida Supreme Court read the statutory language as clear and unambiguous in Hendry Tractor Co. v. Fernandez.¹

The results can look counterintuitive. A plaintiff who filed a five-count complaint and won a nominal dollar amount on one count is still the party recovering judgment and gets costs. A defendant who beat every claim and received a final judgment of zero damages is also the party recovering judgment. The inquiry focuses on the bottom line of the final judgment, not on who “really” won the overall dispute.

Because cost recovery is a matter of right, the trial court cannot simply deny costs to the winning side. The court can still examine whether specific items are reasonable and properly taxable, but the entitlement itself is not discretionary. The statute carves out one narrow exception: it does not apply to executors or administrators of estates in cases where they are not personally liable for costs.¹

What Counts as a Taxable Cost

Florida’s Statewide Uniform Guidelines for Taxation of Costs in Civil Actions sort recoverable expenses into two tiers: costs that should be taxed, meaning courts are expected to award them, and costs that may be taxed at the court’s discretion.² The burden is on the party seeking costs to show each expense was reasonably necessary at the time it was incurred.

Costs Courts Are Expected to Award

These are routine litigation expenses:

Depositions — the original and one copy of transcripts, court reporter per diem fees, technician costs for electronic or video depositions used at trial, and telephone or electronic conferencing charges for remote depositions.
Copies of documents filed with the court that were reasonably necessary, plus copies obtained through discovery even if not used at trial.
Reasonable fees for expert witnesses’ deposition or trial testimony, and the cost of any court-ordered expert report.
Subpoena fees, statutory witness fees, and service costs for fact witnesses at depositions and trial.
Court reporter per diem charges for evidentiary hearings, trial, and post-trial hearings.
Filing fees and service of process fees.
Reasonable charges for special magistrates, guardians ad litem, and attorneys ad litem.

Costs That Fall Within the Court’s Discretion

These require a stronger showing of necessity:

Mediator fees and the cost of court-ordered nonbinding arbitration. Mediation costs are generally taxable only when the parties were required to mediate by statute or court order; voluntary mediation costs are harder to recover.
Reasonable travel for expert witnesses traveling more than 100 miles from their principal office (not including the expert’s time), and reasonable travel for fact witnesses.
The cost of producing relevant electronic media and converting electronically stored information to a usable format in response to discovery requests.
Reasonable fees for testifying experts to conduct examinations, investigations, tests, research, and reports, and to prepare for deposition or trial.

What Section 57.041 Does Not Cover

Attorney’s fees are the biggest item people mistake for costs. You cannot recover attorney’s fees under Section 57.041. Fees require independent authorization from a contract, a separate statute, or a court rule. General office overhead, postage, long-distance phone charges, and fees for consulting experts who never testified are also not taxable costs. The guidelines draw a sharp line between expenses tied to the judicial process and the general cost of running a lawsuit behind the scenes.

The 30-Day Motion to Tax Costs

Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.525 requires that a party seeking taxable costs serve a motion no later than 30 days after the filing of the judgment (including a judgment of dismissal) or the service of a notice of voluntary dismissal.³ Miss that window and you lose the right to recover costs entirely.

Here is where people trip. The 30-day clock is not tolled by post-judgment motions. If you file a motion for rehearing or a Rule 1.530 motion that delays rendition of the final judgment, the deadline for your cost motion still runs from the date the original judgment was filed. Even if the judgment reserves jurisdiction to consider fees later, the Rule 1.525 deadline stays intact.⁴ The safest practice is to file the cost motion immediately after judgment.

The motion itself should itemize every cost claimed, with amounts and a basis for why each expense was reasonably necessary to prosecute or defend the case. The opposing party can challenge any item as unreasonable or outside the scope of taxable costs, and the court may hold an evidentiary hearing to resolve disputes. Once the court rules, the approved costs are added to the final judgment.

Fee-Shifting Tools Beyond Section 57.041

Section 57.041 covers costs. Two other Florida statutes let a winning party reach further and recover attorney’s fees, and both are commonly claimed alongside a motion to tax costs.

Offer of Judgment Under Section 768.79

Florida Statute 768.79 lets either party make a formal settlement offer. If the other side rejects it and does worse at trial by at least 25 percent, the rejecting party owes the offeror’s reasonable costs and attorney’s fees from the date the offer was served.⁵

For a defendant, the math works this way: if the defendant served an offer the plaintiff did not accept within 30 days, and the plaintiff’s eventual judgment is at least 25 percent less than the offer, the defendant recovers reasonable costs (including investigative expenses) and attorney’s fees from the offer date. When those fees and costs exceed the plaintiff’s award, the court enters a net judgment for the defendant. The plaintiff walks away owing money despite technically winning.⁵

The mirror rule applies to plaintiffs. If a plaintiff serves a demand for judgment the defendant rejects, and the plaintiff recovers at least 25 percent more than the demand, the plaintiff gets reasonable costs and fees from the demand date. The motion to claim these fees must be filed within 30 days of judgment, following the same deadline logic as ordinary cost motions.⁵

Sanctions Under Section 57.105

Florida Statute 57.105 covers the situation where the opposing side raised claims or defenses with no legitimate basis. If the court finds that a party or their attorney knew (or should have known) that a claim or defense was not supported by the facts or by existing law, the court must award reasonable attorney’s fees to the other side, split equally between the losing party and their attorney.⁶

The statute has a 21-day safe harbor. Before filing a sanctions motion with the court, you must serve it on the opposing party and give them 21 days to withdraw or correct the offending claim. If they fix it in that window, the motion cannot go forward. The statute protects attorneys who relied in good faith on their client’s factual representations, and it shields parties whose legal arguments, while unsuccessful, were a good-faith effort to extend or change existing law. A related provision addresses delay tactics: if a party proves an opposing action was taken primarily to cause unreasonable delay, the court must award reasonable expenses including attorney’s fees.⁶

When Section 57.041 Does Not Govern

Eminent domain proceedings are the significant exception. When the government takes private property, Florida Statute 73.091 requires the condemning authority to pay all reasonable costs the property owner incurred defending the case, including appraisal fees and, when business damages are at issue, accountant’s fees.⁷ The condemning authority also pays the property owner’s attorney’s fees under Section 73.092. Those obligations exist regardless of who technically recovers judgment. Settlement agreements can also modify the default rules; parties can allocate costs however they choose. If a settlement is silent on costs, the general statutory framework still applies.

Collecting on a Cost Award

Getting costs included in your judgment is half the battle. Section 57.041(2) says costs may be collected by execution on the judgment or the order assessing costs.¹ In practice, collection usually requires affirmative steps.

The first is recording the judgment as a lien. Under Florida Statute 55.10, a judgment becomes a lien on real property in any county where you record a certified copy in the official records. The judgment or an accompanying affidavit must include the lien holder’s address. Once properly recorded, the lien lasts 10 years and can be extended for another 10 years by re-recording a certified copy before the original period expires.⁸

If the debtor has identifiable assets, you can obtain a writ of execution from the clerk’s office and deliver it to the sheriff’s department in the county where the property is located. You will need to provide the sheriff with a deposit for fees, written instructions describing the property and its location, and a certificate from the Secretary of State’s office confirming the judgment has been registered. The sheriff can seize personal property like vehicles, boats, and furniture, as well as real property. Florida’s homestead exemption protects a debtor’s primary residence from seizure, and individuals can also exempt one motor vehicle worth $1,000 or less and one additional personal property item worth $1,000 or less.⁹

While you wait to collect, the award accrues interest. Florida Statute 55.03 sets the post-judgment rate using a formula: the Chief Financial Officer averages the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s discount rate over the preceding 12 months and adds 400 basis points. The rate is fixed when the judgment is obtained and adjusts annually on January 1.¹⁰ Interest applies to the full judgment amount, including taxed costs.

1
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 57.041 – Costs; Recovery From Losing Party
2
Supreme Court of Florida. SC21-1581 – Amendments to Florida Rules of Civil Procedure – Uniform Guidelines for Taxation of Costs
3
The Florida Bar. Moving for Attorneys Fees and Costs – Do It Right and Do It on Time
4
The Florida Bar. Memo Regarding Time for Filing a Rule 1.525 Motion for Attorneys Fees
5
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 768.79 – Offer of Judgment and Demand for Judgment
6
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 57.105 – Attorneys Fee; Sanctions for Raising Unsupported Claims or Defenses
7
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 73.091 – Costs of the Proceedings
8
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 55.10 – Judgment Lien; Recording in Official Records or Judgment Lien Record
9
Division of Corporations – Florida Department of State. How to Collect a Judgment in Florida
10
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 55.03 – Rate of Interest