Costs

A pecuniary allowance, made to the successful party, (and recoverable from the losing party,) for his expenses in prosecuting or defending a suit or a distinct proceeding within a suit. Costs and fees were originally altogether different in their nature. The one is an allowance to a party for expenses incurred in prosecuting or defending a suit; the other, a compensation to an officer for services rendered in the progress of a cause. Therefore, while an executor or administrator was not personally liable to his adversary for costs, yet, if at his instance an officer performed services for him, he had a personal demand for his fees.

11 Serg. & R. 247.

There is in our statute a manifest difference between costs and fees in another respect. Costs are an allowance to a party for the expenses incurred in prosecuting or defending a suit, — an incident to the judgment; while fees are compensation to public officers for services rendered individuals not in the course of litigation.

58 Ala. 579.

In England, the term is also used to designate the charges which an attorney or solicitor is entitled to make and recover from his client, as his remuneration for professional services, such as legal advice, attendances, drafting and copying documents, conducting legal proceedings, etc.