§8-19A-19. Attorney's fees and costs.

(a) In any civil action or investigation resulting from a transaction involving a violation of this chapter, except as provided in subsection (c), the division shall receive reasonable attorney's fees and costs from the nonprevailing party. The amounts appropriated for those purposes in this chapter are in addition to all monies heretofore and hereafter appropriated in any special or general appropriation act to the Attorney General's Special Revenue Account which is a revolving fund in which the Attorney General is authorized to make deposits and withdrawals from time to time so that the account operates on a revolving basis for expenditure for administration and future civil and criminal investigation and prosecution, and all balances of revenue, income, and receipts remaining at the end of the fiscal year shall carry over to the next fiscal year and shall not revert to the State General Fund or any other fund under Section 41-4-93.

(b) Any award of attorney's fees or costs shall become a part of the judgment and subject to execution as the law allows.

(c) In any civil litigation initiated by the division resulting in a judgment or administrative order, the court may award to the prevailing party reasonable attorney's fees and costs if the court finds that there was a complete absence of a justiciable issue of either law or fact raised by the losing party or if the court finds bad faith on the part of the losing party.

(d) The attorney for the prevailing party shall submit a sworn affidavit of his or her time spent on the case and his or her costs incurred.

(Acts 1994, No. 94-650, p. 1220, §19.)