That's how it works in the military. There was recently some interesting discussion about the merits of this idea amongst some defense attorneys (including som

That's how it works in the military. There was recently some interesting discussion about the merits of this idea amongst some defense attorneys (including some PDs and a lawyer with military justice experience) in the comments section here: http://web.archive.org/web/20130523171557/http://blog.simplejustice.us/2013/01/23/response-to-radleybalko-why-loser-pays-in-criminal-law-is-a-loser.aspx#comment-18872691 http://web.archive.org/web/20130523171557/http://blog.simple... Bottom line, there are advantages but also downsides to this approach. (non-Wayback Machine link, where unfortunately the comments are no longer threaded: http://blog.simplejustice.us/2013/01/23/response-to-radleybalko-why-loser-pays-in-criminal-law-is-a-loser/ http://blog.simplejustice.us/2013/01/23/response-to-radleyba...)