Okuzeka
Law vocabulary · Lawsuits & Procedure

Legal costs

Meaning in law, with examples

nounCommon term

In law, legal costs means: The money spent on a case, including lawyers' fees, court fees and expert fees; courts often decide which party must pay them.

In Turkish: yargılama giderleri, avukatlık ücretleri, dava masrafları

How it is used

In England the general rule is that the losing party pays the winner's costs ('costs follow the event'). In the US each party normally pays its own lawyers. Judges make 'costs orders', and lawyers often simply say 'costs': 'we are seeking our costs'.

Example sentences

  1. The claim is worth less than the legal costs of pursuing it.

  2. The court ordered the defendant to pay the claimant's legal costs.

Common collocations

  • pay the legal costs
  • costs order
  • recover legal costs
  • legal costs and expenses
  • costs follow the event
  • litigationThe process of taking a dispute to court and pursuing it there through claims, hearings and judgments, as opposed to settling it privately.
  • judgmentThe final decision of a court in a case, together with the reasons the judge gives for it; also the written document that contains this decision.
  • legal aidPublic funding that pays for legal advice or representation for people who cannot afford a lawyer, especially in criminal and family cases.
  • settlementAn agreement that ends a legal dispute without a court decision, usually with one side paying an agreed amount to the other.
  • damagesMoney that a court orders one party to pay another as compensation for loss or harm caused by a breach of contract or another legal wrong.

More terms: Lawsuits & Procedure

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This page explains English vocabulary for learners. It is not legal advice.