Sorry for the delay. Not sure of the question. In a personal injury lawsuit the Plaintiff (victim) generally does not pay any attorney fees if he or she should lose the case at trial. That is because his obligation to his or her attorney is a "contingent fee" contract meaning the amount owed (i.e. what's negotiated) is contingent upon winning. It's risky for the attorney since he ends up with nothing should he lose the cases. However, there are some contingency contracts that regardless of losing the Plaintiff may still have to pay the attorney's "costs" which are the out of pocket expenses (expert witness fees, filing fees, etc) the attorney has forked out to prepare the case. There are also some instances where the Defense will make a formal offer to settle (CCP 998) which is filed with the court and makes the Plaintiff think hard because even if he wins but the verdict is less than the formal offer to settle the Plaintiff will owe the Defense firm it's "costs"-but not their attorney fees.
Now the above relates only to personal injury suits and settlements which is my background. In other types of lawsuits (i.e. business disputes, contracts, etc) there normally is no "contingency" agreement -only an attorney client contract relating to hours-and the Plaintiffs and the Defendants simply owe their attorneys on an hourly basis.
I'm puzzled by your statement that if you win you should not have to pay anyone anything. First of all you have hired an attorney and she or he can't be expected to not charge you a reasonable amount for his or her services. Moreover, in a personal injury lawsuit his "fees" will come out of the settlement or verdict ( should he win) and the defendant (normally the insurance company) will pay the settlement or judgment. So in that case you don't pay anything and he gets paid indirectly from the insurance company-for the risk he took-and you also get paid by the insurance company for the defendant. You don't pay anything for winning-unless you consider your part is reduced by the amount of the attorney fees contingent on winning. But that's not fair is it? Many attorneys are out there selling cars because they took too many bad cases on a contingency and lost and lost and lost. It's a risky business-I know that personally. You have to know your case and your chances of prevailing before ever taking a contingency fee case.
