Opinion ID: 2310837
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Court Fees, and Duplication and Copying Costs

Text: Applying Burns and our existing precedent to the dispute before us, we find no abuse of discretion in the trial court's allowance of court filing fees, which are allowed as a matter of course. See Robinson, supra, 455 A.2d at 1368; Panos, supra, 205 A.2d at 601-02. We likewise find no abuse of discretion in the trial court's allowance of only $500 for duplication and copying costs. As Burns explains, the prevailing party may recover the cost of obtaining and copying records and other material necessary for case preparation and presentation. See 119 Daily Wash.L.Rptr. at 1873. The trial court here denied most of the requests for copying expenses because Varma failed to establish that all of the copies were necessary. Although Talley argues that the court should not allow any costs for copying in the absence of proof that the copying was necessary, we think the trial court's limited allowance of costs is well within its discretion where, as the trial court found here, some copying was obviously necessary to provide courtesy copies to the court, see id.; see also Super.Ct.Civ.R. 5(c), and for trial exhibits.