The Prevailing Party Should Recover Counsel Fees

THE TIME HAS COME when our judicial system should make compensation to the prevailing party for expenses incurred in litigation a meaningful right, as opposed to a valueless gesture. In brief, this means that in the bulk of civil cases a successful party should no longer have to bear the full burden of his own counsel fees, and conversely those who take to our courts in vain should no longer be permitted to avoid the justice of substantial participation in the costs they have occasioned. To do this requires considerable alteration of the present cost structure applied by our rules as well as a change in our philosophy of compensation for loss.