The estate of De Roode Vennen is perhaps the most beautiful estate I have ever seen. The estate is beautiful, pristine, the air is fresh – your head begins to clear as you walk through the property. You immediately feel a sense of peace and tranquility. To me, this is the place to meditate on your life, and the process of collecting fees awarded by the court. The estate has a nature trail that, while appearing to be beautiful and calm is actually fraught with potential pitfalls. Well a nature walk is somewhat of a misnomer because the De Roode Vennen estate is private property. So if you take that nature walk and start wandering off the path, you are technically trespassing – just like the attorneys that you have hired to collect the court awarded attorney fees. Those attorneys are going to need to know how to navigate the road, so to speak, and not step off the path. What’s important about knowing how to collect fees? Well there is a list. The first step is identifying an order awarding court fees or attorney fees. This is not as easy as it sounds. Before I started practicing law, I spent a lot of time focusing on fee awards. As a matter of fact, I think you need to be a little crazy to try to litigate fee awards. In fact, I the second case I ever litigated and the case which brought me to California, was a case that involved a fee challenge by the lawsuit defendant against the attorney that sued them. So once you know how to collect attorney fees, the next step is familiarizing yourself with the Order on Court Awarded Attorney Fees. Again this sounds easy. However, even though you may win an award, the winning party must then initiate legal action to enforce the judgment. This is done through a writ of execution. The basic legal steps in a fee collection process are: One of the biggest issues with collecting an awarded fee is lack of documentation. Good documentation in a private estate like de Roode Vennen is the absolute key to navigating any property. The same goes with a court awarded fee. If the process is not documented properly, the fee award is almost impossible to collect. The problem with basic legal methodology is that sometimes the expected result is not realized. For example, you may request a further hearing on attorneys’ fees and the judge may deny you a further hearing on your motion. Sometimes judges even make mistakes and that mistake can be damaging to your case on appeal. The best way to deal with this problem is to rely upon the help of professionals. In the same way you would use a map or have a guide who knows the property, collect attorneys’ fees the same way. Always work with professionals when dealing with substantial legal issues. Just like on the estate of De Roode Vennen, a lot of patience is required, and sometimes problems will surface that could not have been anticipated. However, taking the time to clear the air and deal with the various issues can be a healing process both for the family that owns estate of De Roode Vennen, and the people who have been granted fees after collecting money. If you need help on collecting attorney fees, see How to Collect on Attorney Fees Awarded by the Court. On that site, you will discover further information on how to collect court awarded attorney fees.