costs

noun · Prozesskosten

Prozesskosten, and the system answers the English questions in advance, the loser pays, § 91 ZPO, in shares on partial success, § 92 ZPO, and only up to the statutory fee tables, § 91 Abs. 2 ZPO, so recovery is calculable and capped. Die Kosten folgen dem Ereignis is the machine translating a proverb nobody here uses.

Which translation, when

Prozesskostenthe litigation costs, allocated by defeat, § 91 ZPO, apportioned on partial success, § 92 ZPO, and quantified afterwards in the Kostenfestsetzung, § 104 ZPO.

gesetzliche Gebührenthe recovery ceiling, § 91 Abs. 2 ZPO reimburses the statutory fee-table amounts, not the hourly rates actually paid, the delta stays with the client.

Why

German costs law is a statute, not a broad discretion. The loser pays, § 91 Abs. 1 ZPO, in proportion on partial success, § 92 ZPO, with the pointed exception of § 93 ZPO for the defendant who gave no cause and concedes at once. The decision splits in two, the Kostengrundentscheidung sits in the judgment’s Tenor, the figures follow in the Kostenfestsetzungsverfahren, § 104 ZPO. The ceiling is the culture shock, § 91 Abs. 2 ZPO reimburses the gesetzlichen Gebühren of the fee tables, keyed to the Streitwert, never the hourly rates actually agreed, so the winning client’s recovery is calculable in advance and capped, and the delta between tariff and invoice stays private. One gate matters for the English claimant personally, die Prozesskostensicherheit, § 110 ZPO, security demandable from claimants resident outside the EU and EEA, which since Brexit can reach the UK claimant, treaty exemptions to be checked case by case. Legal aid, die Prozesskostenhilfe, completes the vocabulary, and costs follow the event, translated word for word, names a proverb German procedure never needed.

Typical mistakes

Die Kosten folgen dem Ereignis is a proverb in translation, the German rule is statutory, die unterliegende Partei trägt die Kosten, § 91 Abs. 1 ZPO, with the Anerkenntnis exception of § 93 ZPO.
Recovery is capped at the fee tables, § 91 Abs. 2 ZPO reimburses gesetzliche Gebühren, not hourly rates, so the winning English client recovering their actual spend has read the wrong system.
Security for costs is die Prozesskostensicherheit, § 110 ZPO, demandable from claimants outside the EU and EEA, since Brexit potentially the UK claimant, treaty exemptions to be checked, and Sicherheit für Kosten is residue that names no institution.

What matters

Budget memos for German litigation write themselves from the tables: the exposure is loser-pays, § 91 ZPO, quantified against the Streitwert-driven statutory fees, § 91 Abs. 2 ZPO, fixed later in the § 104 Kostenfestsetzung, and the UK claimant may first face die Prozesskostensicherheit, § 110 ZPO. The memo promising full recovery of hourly rates has imported an English assessment no German court conducts.

Authority

§ 91 Abs. 1, 2 ZPO
§ 92 ZPO
§ 93 ZPO
§ 104 ZPO
§ 110 ZPO

What the machine misses

Costs follow the event comes out of the engines word for word, die Kosten folgen dem Ereignis, a proverb Germany never coined because the statute already decides, the loser pays up to the fee tables. The capped recovery is the quiet loss, output happily promises reimbursement of actual fees where the German system refunds statutory tariffs, and the client learns the difference from the first invoice after victory.

Examples

the costs of the proceedings	die Kosten des Rechtsstreits
costs follow the event	die unterliegende Partei trägt die Kosten
security for costs	die Prozesskostensicherheit
costs order	die Kostenentscheidung