42 U.S.C. § 12205
Section 12205 · Attorneys fees
This is § 505 of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 355 court decisions — leading case Buckhannon Board and Care Home Incs v. West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (2001)
Most recently applied in Rudolph Betancourt v. Indian Hills Plaza LLC (December 2023)
Cases citing this section usually also cite 42 U.S.C. § 1988 · 42 U.S.C. § 12101 · 42 U.S.C. § 2000E
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
In any action or administrative proceeding commenced pursuant to this chapter, the court or agency, in its discretion, may allow the prevailing party, other than the United States, a reasonable attorney's fee, including litigation expenses, and costs, and the United States shall be liable for the foregoing the same as a private individual.