Q: After obtaining a winning judgement in a civil case in PA, can I get a lawyer then and add those fees to the judgement?
I recently sued my landlord in small claims court in PA for double my security deposit and won because they didn't even bother to respond to the case. I'm currently waiting for 30 day appeal period to end and as I've been preparing for any possibile appeal or learning how to collect the judgement, I've figured out it's way more complicated now. If I were to hire an attorney now at this point, would I be able to add any legal fees to the total judgement? The lease agreement that I sued over does include a section stating that all legal fees must be paid to the winning party in any suit, but I'm not sure if that would apply anymore or not.
*Update: assuming the other party appeals to the court of common please and I were to hire a lawyer for that, would I be able to then request those legal fees added to the judgement?
A: Unfortunately, the amount of the judgement can’t be increased after the judgement has been issued even if it costs you to collect the judgement.
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