North Carolina § 46A-3 - Attorneys' fees.

§ 46A-3. Attorneys' fees.

In proceedings to partition property under this Chapter, the court shall allocate among all the cotenants of the property those reasonable attorneys' fees incurred by any cotenant for the common benefit of all the cotenants, unless a cotenant shows that doing so would be inequitable. The allocation shall be according to each cotenant's interest in the property. The attorneys' fees described in subsection (a) of this section do not include attorneys' fees incurred in disputing the method of partition or the division of the proceeds of a partition sale. Reasonable attorneys' fees incurred by a cotenant in disputing an issue described in this subsection shall be allocated by the court among those cotenants determined by the court to be aligned with the cotenant on that issue. The allocation shall be according to each aligned cotenant's interest in the property relative to the total interest of all the aligned cotenants in the property. The court has discretion to allocate among the parties reasonable attorneys' fees that are not described in subsection (a) or (b) of this section. History (2020-23, s. 3.) Editor's Note. - Session Laws 2020-23, s. 18, made this section, as added by Session Laws 2020-23, s. 3, effective October 1, 2020, and applicable to partition proceedings commenced on or after that date. §§ 46A-4 through 46A-19: Reserved for future codification purposes.