§47-14-12. Civil action; attorney's fees.

(a) The failure of a certificate holder, a licensee or of any other person engaged in the sale of preneed funeral contracts without a certificate of authority or license required pursuant to the provisions of this article to comply with the provisions of this article gives rise to a civil cause of action in favor of the division, any aggrieved consumer, contract guarantor or contract purchaser. Upon entry of a judgment for damages in favor of the plaintiff, the trial court shall award punitive damages in the amount of three times the actual damages awarded in the judgment.

(b) The prevailing party, after judgment in trial court and exhaustion of all appeals, if any, shall receive reasonable attorney's fees and costs from the nonprevailing party.

(c) The attorney for the prevailing party shall submit a sworn affidavit of his time spent on the case and his costs incurred for all the motions, hearings and appeals to the trial judge who presided over the civil case.

(d) The trial judge shall award the prevailing party the sum of reasonable costs incurred in the action, plus a reasonable legal fee for the hours actually spent on the case as sworn to in an affidavit.

(e) Any award of attorney's fees or costs shall become part of the judgment and subject to execution as the law allows.

(f) The division shall deposit any penalties or attorney's fees recovered by the division in the "Preneed Burial Contract Regulation Fund" for the purpose of administering and enforcing the provisions of this article.