The fees to use Brief are paid by the Plaintiff, so there is no up-front cost to the Defendant. However, the Plaintiff may seek reimbursement of those fees through the Brief dispute process and, if the Plaintiff prevails (wins), those fees paid by the Plaintiff to Brief may be included in the Final Award total.
Our policy is that the party initiating the case is the party responsible for the initial cost of arbitration unless the parties otherwise agree to split or shift those fees. (In those instances the Brief administrator should be contacted to facilitate a shared payment.)