In honor of this short court week, here’s a brief post answering a question I’ve been asked a few times:  When a statute authorizes a court to award reasonable attorney fees as costs, can the fee award also include reasonable paralegal fees?  (Note that paralegal fees are not separately included in the “complete and exclusive” list of allowable expenses in 7A-305(d).)  Some trial judges and clerks of court routinely include paralegal fees in attorney fee awards and others do not.  But have North Carolina’s appellate courts addressed the specific question one way or another?  Yes, and the short answer is that trial courts do indeed have this discretion.  In Lea Co. v. North Carolina Board of Transportation, the Supreme Court reviewed an attorney fee award in the context of a condemnation action.  The court stated pointedly that,