What you described was perhaps the intent behind the law, but that’s not necessarily how it is used in practice. You can use the law to intimidate people who have less money than you, simply by giving the money to a lawyer… and then the other side needs to spend about the same money on their lawyer… or risk losing the case. “The process is the punishment.”
(I have recently contributed money to a defense fund of a woman who exposed a certain criminal organization in my country. The organization was disbanded, a few members were convicted, one of them ended up in prison, but the boss is politically well-connected and keeps avoiding punishment. In turn, the boss filed five lawsuits against her for “damaging a good reputation of a legal entity”. He already lost one of the lawsuits, and is likely to lose all of them, but he has lots of money so he probably doesn’t care. Meanwhile, the legal expenses have almost ruined the woman, so she needs to ask people for contributions. non-English link)
What you described was perhaps the intent behind the law, but that’s not necessarily how it is used in practice. You can use the law to intimidate people who have less money than you, simply by giving the money to a lawyer… and then the other side needs to spend about the same money on their lawyer… or risk losing the case. “The process is the punishment.”
(I have recently contributed money to a defense fund of a woman who exposed a certain criminal organization in my country. The organization was disbanded, a few members were convicted, one of them ended up in prison, but the boss is politically well-connected and keeps avoiding punishment. In turn, the boss filed five lawsuits against her for “damaging a good reputation of a legal entity”. He already lost one of the lawsuits, and is likely to lose all of them, but he has lots of money so he probably doesn’t care. Meanwhile, the legal expenses have almost ruined the woman, so she needs to ask people for contributions. non-English link)