Additionally, although the Simpsons claim that their successful breach of contract claim and their unsuccessful negligent construction claim were too similar to allow for the separation of the hours spent on each claim, the trial court would also have been unable to discern the number of hours allocated to defending the separate counterclaims filed by Birch Properties and Husfeld. See Emerson v. Brookmere Homeowners Assn., Inc., 311 Ga.App. 371, 372 (715 S.E.2d 775) (2011) (under OCGA § 13-6-11, plaintiff cannot recover expenses of defending against a counterclaim); Paul v. Destito, 250 Ga.App. 631, 642 (9) (550 S.E.2d 739) (2001) (plaintiff could not recover attorney fees in defending against counterclaim alleging that he owed money to the defendant). Therefore, we reverse the trial court's award of attorney fees to the Simpsons and remand to the trial court for an evidentiary hearing to allow the Simpsons to establish the amount of attorney fees that was attributable to their prevailing claims.

And Bacon-Tinsley testified that her statements also included unrecoverable fees related to dismissed claims, counterclaims, prior appeals, and pre-suit activities. See Emerson v. Brookmere Homeowners Assn., Inc., 311 Ga. App. 371, 372, 715 S.E.2d 775 (2011) (under OCGA § 13-6-11, plaintiff cannot recover expenses of defending against a counterclaim). [18] Although Dr. Wanna submitted billing statements from his lawyers that delegated various fees to different tasks performed, they were not of "sufficient particularity to permit the [factfinder] to distinguish between time and expenses attributable to the successful claims and time and expenses attributable to the pursuit of the unsuccessful claims and the defense of the counterclaims."

Under the plain language of the statute, only a plaintiff is eligible to recover the expenses incurred in prosecuting his or her claim. It is well-established that OCGA § 13-6-11 "does not permit the recovery of expenses incurred in defending a lawsuit." Dennis-Smith v. Freeman , 277 Ga. App. 822, 825 (3), 627 S.E.2d 872 (2006) (emphasis in original); see also Canton Plaza, Inc. v. Regions Bank, Inc. , 315 Ga. App. 303, 310 (3), 732 S.E.2d 449 (2012) ; Emerson v. Brookmere Homeowners Assn. , 311 Ga. App. 371, 372, 715 S.E.2d 775 (2011). The trial court, therefore, erred in denying Woodstone's motion for summary judgment as to this particular ground of Southern Fiber's Sixth counterclaim and Turton's Seventh counterclaim.

(Citations and punctuation omitted.) Emerson v. Brookmere Homeowners Assn., 311 Ga.App. 371, 372, 715 S.E.2d 775 (2011). Moreover, the underlying policy of OCGA § 13–6–11 bars “a defendant from transforming a plaintiff's case into that defendant's damage suit for having been sued[.]”