The cost of a lawsuit falls into two categories. Court costs (dépens) are the scale-based part: court registry fees, service costs, witness allowances, and — often the decisive item — the remuneration of the court-appointed expert. They are listed in article 695 and, in principle, borne by the losing party (article 696).
Lawyers' fees, by contrast, are freely set: they are not included in court costs. This is the purpose of article 700, which allows the judge to award a party a sum, determined on an equitable basis, in respect of “costs incurred and not included in the court costs”. The judge may also award nothing at all.
In the judgment of 8 March 2000, the Paris Court of Appeal ordered McDonald's to bear three quarters of the court costs and Bernard Collorafi one quarter, and dismissed both parties' claims under article 700 — each bearing its own lawyers' fees.