Opinion ID: 1133582
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The court held Bledsoe to his burden of proof.

Text: Noey argues that Bledsoe's burden was to prove that he fully and satisfactorily performed his contract with Noey and that he was entitled to the specific funds at issue. Noey contends that Bledsoe failed to meet his burden because he did not prove that his legal fees were reasonable. Bledsoe responds that he met his burden by testifying about his representation and submitting over 200 pages of billing records. He argues that he had no need to go further in proving the reasonableness of his fees because Noey did not contest the issue. [40] The record supports Bledsoe's position. At trial, Noey did not dispute the reasonableness of Bledsoe's billings. He focused on the contention that his contract with Bledsoe capped Bledsoe's fees at $15,000. The trial court rejected this contention, finding that Noey had agreed to pay Bledsoe $140 per hour, with no $15,000 cap on total billings. The court ruled that Bledsoe had established his fees by clear and convincing evidence. It went on to note that Noey did not challenge the reasonableness of Bledsoe's fees and had introduced no evidence indicating that they were unreasonable. Having made these findings, the court commented, I'm not going to try to analyze [the reasonableness of the fees billed], based on the very small amount of testimony in relation to the very large amount billed here. I'm not going to analyze whether Bledsoe earned those fees, as it were. Noey spotlights this comment out of context as support for his argument that Bledsoe failed to meet his burden. But viewed in context, the comment merely acknowledges a practical reality: In the absence of any actual dispute or contrary evidence, Bledsoe's testimony and records support an inference that his fees were reasonable. The court had no need to delve deeper into the issue.