Generally, the plaintiff will advance the litigation fees first. After the trial of the case is completed, the judgment will determine the sharing of the litigation fees based on the liability of the original and defendant parties. The party that completely loses the lawsuit will generally be ordered to bear all litigation costs (evaluation fees).

Generally, the attorney fees for litigation are borne by the client himself; situations where the attorney fees are borne by the losing party include creditor exercise of revocation rights cases, copyright and trademark civil cases, etc.; where appropriate, the losing party will bear the attorney fees. Cases in which reasonable attorney fees are borne include patent and security rights disputes, unfair competition cases, personal injury compensation, reputation infringement and traffic accident cases, legal aid cases and arbitration cases, etc.

(1) Generally speaking, the client’s legal fees are borne by the client himself

1. The existing regulations on legal fees only apply to some areas and cannot be understood as losing the case. The legal basis for the party (the party at fault) to bear attorney's fees;

2. Whether to hire a lawyer is the right of the party, not a necessary act. The court will not change the outcome of the case based on whether the party hires a lawyer. Therefore There is no inevitable causal relationship between hiring a lawyer and filing a lawsuit;

3. my country's current relevant regulations do not completely unify the fee standards for lawyers, and parties and entrusted lawyers can negotiate on their own, so the court determines the fees It is very difficult to be accurate;

4. Having the losing party bear the legal fees may also lead to malicious competition among lawyers, which is not conducive to the current legal construction of our country.

(2) In civil litigation, the attorney fees of the lawsuit are borne by the losing party

1. In contract dispute cases, the creditor exercises the right of revocation. The law stipulates that necessary expenses such as attorney fees and travel expenses paid by the creditor to exercise the right of revocation shall be borne by the debtor; if the third party is at fault, it shall be appropriately shared.

2. Copyright civil dispute cases. The law stipulates that reasonable expenses paid to stop infringement include reasonable expenses for the right holder or an agent to investigate and collect evidence for the infringement. The people's court may, based on the parties' litigation claims and specific case circumstances, calculate attorney's fees that comply with the provisions of relevant state departments into the scope of compensation.

3. Trademark civil dispute cases. The law stipulates that the reasonable expenses paid to stop infringement as stipulated in Article 56, Paragraph 1 of Article 17 of the Trademark Law include the reasonable expenses of the right holder or the authorized agent to investigate and collect evidence on the infringement. The people's court may, based on the parties' litigation claims and the specific circumstances of the case, calculate attorney fees that comply with the regulations of the relevant state departments into the scope of compensation.

(3) The judicial arbitration agency may decide at its discretion the situation in which the losing party shall bear reasonable attorney fees

1. Patent dispute cases. The law stipulates that the People's Court may, based on the request of the right holder and the specific circumstances of the case, calculate the reasonable expenses paid by the right holder to investigate and stop the infringement within the scope of the compensation amount. If attorney's fees are to be calculated within the defendant's compensation amount in a patent dispute case, they must be based on "reasonable expenses paid for investigating and stopping infringement."

2. Security rights dispute cases. The law stipulates that the scope of guarantee includes the main creditor's rights and interest, liquidated damages, damages and costs of realizing the creditor's rights. If the debtor performs its debts in accordance with the contract, the creditor's rights and interests can be realized. Because the debtor fails to perform its obligations, the creditor has to realize its rights through litigation. The attorney fees paid thereby are the expenses incurred by the party to realize its creditor's rights, which are For property losses suffered by a party, the "expenses for realizing the creditor's rights" shall include reasonable attorney's fees.

3. Unfair competition cases. The law stipulates that if an operator violates the provisions of this law and causes damage to the infringed operator, he shall be liable for damages. If the infringed operator's loss is difficult to calculate, the amount of compensation shall be the amount obtained by the infringer due to the infringement during the infringement period. Profits; and shall bear the reasonable expenses paid by the infringed operator for investigating the operator's unfair competition behavior that infringes upon its legitimate rights and interests.

4. Personal injury compensation, reputation infringement, and traffic accident cases.

The law stipulates that if an infringement causes physical injury to a citizen, compensation shall be paid for medical expenses, loss of income due to missed work, living allowances for the disabled, and other expenses; if death is caused, funeral expenses, necessary living expenses for the deceased's dependents, and other expenses shall be paid.

5. Legal aid cases. The law stipulates that if legal aid personnel handle legal aid cases such as travel expenses, printing fees, transportation and communication fees, investigation and evidence collection fees and other necessary expenses for case handling, and the aided party is included in the litigation claims, the court may award the non-aided party the penalty based on the specific circumstances. The losing party shall bear the responsibility. Therefore, when lawyers are handling legal aid cases, it is recommended that the lawyer's "necessary expenses for handling the case" be included in the litigation request and the defendant be required to bear them.

6. Arbitration cases. The law stipulates that the arbitral tribunal has the right to rule in the award that the losing party should compensate the winning party for part of the reasonable expenses incurred in handling the case.

How much does it cost to file a lawsuit?

1. The court’s case acceptance fee;

2. The lawyer’s agency fee for the case.

If the plaintiff wants to hire a litigation agent to appear in court, the charging standards for attorneys in civil and commercial cases vary from place to place, but the minimum fee will not be less than 1,000 yuan. Lawyer case agency fees are also divided into first-instance agency, second-instance agency and enforcement agency;

3. During the litigation process, fees for related application matters, such as preservation fees, etc. are based on the application of the parties, and the People's Court shall follow corresponding standards. Collect;

4. After winning the lawsuit, the defendant promptly fulfills the judgment, so there is no need to apply for enforcement procedures. You can save the prepaid execution fee. If the defendant cannot fulfill the content determined in the judgment, then the issue of execution will be involved. When applying to the People's Court for enforcement, the applicant must also pay relevant fees in accordance with the "Measures for the Payment of Litigation Fees".

To sum up, this is the editor’s answer to the question of who pays the legal fees in a lawsuit between the plaintiff and the defendant. I hope it can help you.

Legal Basis

"Measures for the Payment of Litigation Fees"

Article 31 For cases reached through mediation by the People's Court, the burden of litigation fees shall be borne by both parties Resolved through negotiation; if negotiation fails, the decision shall be made by the People's Court.