Avoid Attorneys Fees

It's very common to find court filings which use the term, "attorneys fees". Both "attorney's fees'" and "attorneys' fees" are acceptable, and there is some debate about which is preferred. See this post by Bryan Garner, in which he recommends "attorney's fees" as the better alternative.

For whatever reason, lawyers will commonly drop the apostrophe in this phrase, even though it would be hard to imagine failing to select the possessive form in most other phrases. See these examples:

NYSCEF Doc. No. 40, Defendant’s Memorandum Of Law In Opposition To Plaintiff’s Motion For Summary Judgment And In Support Of Defendant’s Cross Motion To Dismiss The Complaint, at 19, MEPT 757 Third Avenue LLC v. Hayim Grant, Index No. 653267/2020 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. Feb. 5, 2021), available at: https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/fbem/DocumentDisplayServlet?documentId=savtrt5UiETqLKmyJlsLQw==&system=prod

NYSCEF Doc. No. 25, Defendants’ Memorandum Of Law In Opposition To Plaintiff’s Motion For Summary Judgment, at 2, Atlantic Specialty Insurance Co. v. Party City Corp.., Index No. 652075/2020 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. Oct. 7, 2020), available at: https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/fbem/DocumentDisplayServlet?documentId=R10dYX1Lp1fF3dIuCab_PLUS_Qw==&system=prod

Correcting a mistake like this in a brief will undoubtedly win you credit with lawyers for whom attorney's fees are what it's all about.