Defence costs will arise when a defendant is privately represented in a criminal matter.
To be privately represented means that the defence will not be covered by legal aid.
Defence costs will be assessed by a taxation master at the conclusion of most successful criminal trials.
Defendants will only be entitled to the proportion of their costs that are found to be reasonable.
You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.This article relating to law in the United Kingdom, or its constituent jurisdictions, is a stub.