Is a plaintiff entitled to general fees in a civil rights action even if he loses his case?

96 F.3d at 650. Thus, "[t]he fact that a plaintiff may ultimately lose his case is not in itself a sufficient justification for the assessment of fees" in favor of the defendant. Hughes v. Rowe, 449 U.S. at 14, 101 S.Ct. at 178. In order to avoid chilling the initiation and prosecution of meritorious civil rights actions, fees are not to be awarded to a prevailing defendant unless the plaintiff's action was "frivolous, unreasonable, or groundless, or ... the plaintiff continued to litigate after it clearly became so." Christiansburg, 434 U.S. at 422, 98 S.Ct. at 700-01; see Hughes v. Rowe, 449 U.S. at 14, 101 S.Ct. at 178 ("The plaintiff's action must be meritless in the sense that it is groundless or without foundation.").