Opinion ID: 197828
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Plaintiff's Expert Fees Incurred After the Offer of Judgment

Text: 51 The defendants finally contend that the court erred by awarding the plaintiff expert fees incurred after the offer of judgment. Such an award expressly contravenes the terms of Rule 68, which provides that, if an offer of judgment is rejected and the judgment finally obtained by the offeree is not more favorable than the offer, the offeree must pay the costs incurred after the making of the offer. Fed.R.Civ.P. 68. The district court erred in making this award. Although the plaintiff did not distinguish between costs incurred pre- and post-offer, the defendants have only contested the award of $3,950 paid for the testimony of two experts at the two trials. Because such amounts were clearly incurred after the offer of judgment and the defendants have not challenged the other components of the trial court's initial award of costs, we reduce the plaintiff's award of costs by that amount.