Economically, they are the equivalent of additional damages. Some of those costs are described here. Costs of Defense . If you are involved in litigation, you have to hire a lawyer. That can be expensive.
Costs can include the charges of expert witnesses.
Even simple lawsuits can be expensive. While a portion of those defense costs may be recoverable, as described in the next section, not all of the defense costs will be. Make certain any insurance policies you buy include in their coverage payment of the costs of defense. Civil Rule 82 . Alaska is pretty much unique in that in most kinds of civil cases the prevailing party in a lawsuit gets to recover a portion of his or her defense costs from the losing party.