§ 9-15-7.Liability of attorney guilty of willful neglect or misconduct for costs

Losing a case isn’t enough to trigger this section — the statute reaches only costs traceable to an attorney’s willful neglect or misconduct. If a plaintiff is involuntarily dismissed or cast in the action because of that conduct, the attorney is liable for the costs that accrued in the case. The statute applies the identical rule on the defense side: if a defendant is cast in the action because of the defense attorney’s willful neglect or misconduct, that attorney answers for the costs.

The section sets liability but doesn’t itself supply the mechanism for collecting it — Code Section 9-15-13 handles that, directing the court to enter judgment and execution against an attorney once liability for costs is shown. Nor does this section address whether the client remains separately liable for costs under the general rule in Code Section 9-15-1; it adds the attorney as an additional target when the attorney’s own conduct, rather than the merits of the case, caused the loss.