§ 8201 Amount of costs in an action

If you win a court case in New York and the judge awards you "costs," this rule sets out how much money that actually means. It's not the same as your lawyer's fees or other expenses you paid. It's a fixed dollar amount set by law.

The total breaks down into three parts. You can get $200 for the work done on the case before something called a "note of issue" is filed (this is the paperwork that says the case is ready for trial). You can get another $200 for work done after that filing but before the trial starts. Finally, you can get $300 for the actual trial, or for a hearing where damages get decided.

So if a case goes all the way through trial, the standard costs add up to $700 total. This amount stays the same no matter how complicated the case was or how many hours your lawyer worked. It's meant to be a simple, predictable amount that the losing side pays to the winning side.