Legal costs (sagsomkostninger)
Also known as costs of proceedings, court costs award, sagsomkostninger, omkostninger ved retssag
Legal costs are the costs of court proceedings, which the losing party is typically ordered to pay to the other side.
Key facts
- Borne by
- The losing party
- Rarely cover
- The full outlay
In practice
If you win the case, you are normally awarded legal costs. But they are fixed according to scales and rarely cover what the case has actually cost you.
And there is a bigger catch: costs awarded against a debtor with no money are just as irrecoverable as the principal. Winning a case against an empty debtor is an expensive victory.
Where it commonly goes wrong
- A case is brought on the argument that “he will end up paying the costs”. He only will if he can.
- You count on full recovery. Costs are awarded by scale, not by what you actually spent.
- You forget they can run the other way. Lose the case and you pay the other side’s costs.