It depends on the jurisdiction but in the USA, generally the plaintiff is not responsible for the defenses legal fees. You’re generally only responsible for th

It depends on the jurisdiction but in the USA, generally the plaintiff is not responsible for the defenses legal fees. You’re generally only responsible for the defendants legal fees if your suit was unfounded and purposefully used to disrupt or harm your legal opponent, rather than to seek remedy in good faith. The defendant can be made to be responsible for your legal fees because those fees were “caused” by their action/inaction which was the unlawful source of harm that you are suing about. Because the defendant “caused” the lawsuit as a direct result of their original actions against you. All costs that follow from their original harm are owed by them to make you whole. If you bring a lawsuit as a plaintiff and lose, as long as it was a reasonably well founded lawsuit, there’s nothing to point to and say “ah ha! You injured me with your lawsuit that I won”. Because everything that happened was perfectly within everyone’s right (to bring a reasonable lawsuit but fail to secure a win).