Short answer. Yes. As a rule, attorney's fees cannot be recovered without a stipulation, but Article 2208 lists exceptions, and actions for legal support are expressly one of them. Because you were forced to sue to obtain support you were legally owed, the court may award you attorney's fees, so long as the amount is reasonable.
What the law says
attorney's fees and expenses of litigation, other than judicial costs, cannot be recovered, except:
Civil Code, Article 2208 — When Attorney's Fees Are Recoverable. Read the full provision →
What the law says
In actions for legal support
Civil Code, Article 2208 — When Attorney's Fees Are Recoverable. Read the full provision →
What the law says
In all cases, the attorney's fees and expenses of litigation must be reasonable.
Civil Code, Article 2208 — When Attorney's Fees Are Recoverable. Read the full provision →
The general rule: each side bears its own fees
Philippine law does not automatically make a losing party pay the winner's lawyer. Article 2208 begins from the opposite premise: in the absence of a stipulation, attorney's fees and expenses of litigation, other than judicial costs, cannot be recovered, except in specific listed situations. The default is that each party shoulders its own attorney's fees, win or lose. Recovering them from the other side is the exception, not the rule, and it happens only where the case falls within one of the categories the article enumerates.
A list of exceptions
Article 2208 then sets out a series of situations in which fees may be awarded. They include cases where exemplary damages are given, where the defendant's conduct forced the plaintiff to litigate or incur expenses to protect his interest, where the defendant acted in gross and evident bad faith in refusing a plainly valid claim, and several others. The thread running through many of them is that the defendant's own wrongful or unjustified conduct is what dragged the plaintiff into court, making it fair to shift the cost of the lawyer onto the party responsible.
Legal support is an enumerated exception
Among the listed exceptions, the article expressly includes fees in actions for legal support. So someone compelled to file suit to obtain the support the law entitles them to falls squarely within a recognised ground for recovering attorney's fees. The rationale is plain: a person owed support usually needs it precisely because they lack means, and forcing them to bear the cost of a lawyer to extract what was already owed would compound the injury. The law therefore allows the court to award fees in this category of case.
The fees must be reasonable
Even where an exception applies, the award is not unlimited. Article 2208 closes by requiring that in all cases, the attorney's fees and expenses of litigation must be reasonable. The court fixes an amount that is fair given the nature and difficulty of the case and the work involved, rather than simply rubber-stamping whatever the lawyer charged. For a support claimant, the practical takeaway is that fees are recoverable, but the court will set them at a reasonable figure, so the request should be presented as reasonable and tied to the actual effort the litigation required.
Cases citing this provision
These Supreme Court decisions cite the provision above. We list them so you can read them yourself; the summaries of what each decided are not ours to give.
- Philippine National Construction Corporation vs. Apac Marketing Corporation, represented by Cesar M. Ong, Jr, G.R. No. 190957, June 5, 2013 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Atty. Melita Go and Wayne Go vs. Saint Jude Catholic School Manila, Inc. et al, G.R. No. 257761, April 22, 2025 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Sps. Bernabe Mercade, Jr., et al. vs. Sps. Jesus Bardillas and Letecia Gabuya Bardillas, G.R. No. 163157, June 27, 2016 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- CCC Insurance Corporation vs. Kawasaki Steel Corporation, et al, G.R. No. 156162, June 22, 2015 — read the decision on LawPhil →