# Plain Language Summary: Litigation Reimbursement Act

This bill makes it mandatory for courts to pay back attorney's fees and legal costs to people who are acquitted in criminal trials. Currently, judges have the option to award these fees only if they decide the government's case was frivolous, vexatious, or made in bad faith—basically, only if the prosecution acted in an obviously unreasonable way. This bill changes that by requiring courts to automatically reimburse legal fees whenever someone goes to trial and is found not guilty, regardless of whether the government's case was reasonable or not.

The bill also applies similar changes to civil cases (lawsuits between private parties or against the government that aren't criminal). It removes the word "may" from existing law and replaces it with "shall," which means courts no longer have a choice—they must award attorney's fees and costs to the winning party in these situations. This is a significant shift because it takes away judicial discretion and makes fee awards automatic rather than optional.

The practical effect is that defendants who win their cases would no longer have to pay for their own legal defense out of pocket. Instead, the government (in criminal cases) or the losing party (in civil cases) would cover those costs. Supporters argue this protects innocent people from financial ruin after being wrongly prosecuted. Critics might worry this could discourage prosecutors from pursuing cases they're uncertain about, potentially allowing guilty people to go free, or that it could overwhelm courts with fee disputes. Either way, this represents a major change in how the legal system handles the costs of litigation.