This report answers the questions: What are Litigation Expenses?, How much does Trial Preparation Cost?, What are the median costs of litigation by case type? What are the average hourly rates for expert witnesses? What are the legal financing options for attorneys?

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Litigation Expense Snapshot: Costs Related to the Pretrial and Trial Process.
Litigation is often avoided because of the expenses related to taking the case to court. The
list of costs associated with litigation include filing fees for documents in court, discovery,
depositions, expert witness fees for depositions, expert witness fees for trial, and travel expenses.
“What are Litigation Expenses?” includes:
i. Trial preparation has numerous steps and parts, each of which has its own expense
ii. Discovery is a costly process and the most exhaustive pretrial step
iii. An attorney needs to consider the hourly rate and price per page for depositions
iv. There is a cost/benefit regarding expert witnesses; they are imperative for the attorney but
extremely costly
Trial preparation is an important pretrial step for the attorney. During this stage, the
attorney collects all of his materials to prepare for litigation. (“Trial Preparation”). Each trial type
will include different tasks but trial preparation can include evidence gathering, private
investigations, preparing witness testimony, and medical investigations. Id. At the conclusion of
trial preparation, an attorney can incur on average $9,750 in trial preparation case expenses.
The discovery process is one of the most expensive parts of litigation, and it is also the
most time intensive pretrial step. (Caseload Highlights, vol 20). This stage is where the attorney
will shape and form his arguments for his client. Some attorneys describe discovery as “the black
hole of litigation”; deciding how much discovery is enough is one of the problems with the
process, and the attorney will almost always err on the side of too much. (Towle, sec X). The

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total cost of discovery will vary depending on the type of lawsuit but $15,000 in discovery
expenses can be accumulated during this process.
Depositions are part of the discovery step. There are certain costs to consider when
depositions are being taken. First, a court reporter will need to be hired and paid an hourly rate to
transcribe the questions and answers. (Houghton, “How Much Does It Cost to Hire a Court
Reporter?”). In addition, there is payment rate for each page of the transcription. (Houghton,
“How Much Does Your Legal Deposition Transcript Really Cost?”). For example, the reporter
may charge $3.25 per page. Id. Attorneys also need to be aware of the number of characters per
line the court reporter uses; the reporter may use either 55, 57, 60, or 65. Id. The fewer number
of characters used per line the greater the cost will be because the total amount of pages will
increase. With these things considered, the total cost of the depositions can reach an average of
$10,100.
Expert witnesses can be imperative for an attorney to win his case; using experts is also
extremely costly for an attorney. Experts generally charge a different hourly rate for in-court
testimony, depositions, and file reviews and preparation. (“Expert Witness Fee Study”).
Average Hourly Rate for Expert Witness
In-Court Testimony Depositions File Reviews and Preparation
$385 per hour $353 per hour $254 per hour
High: $7,500 hour - High: $1,000 per hour
Experts in different fields charge different amounts than others. For instance, the total cost of a
damage expert can be $30,000 and a liability expert could be $28,000.In addition to the hourly
pay rate, the majority of expert witnesses charge for a minimum number of hours, three for
depositions and four for trial. Id. The witness is also reimbursed for his traveling expenses, food,
and lodging.
Attorneys can avoid these costly litigation expenses by becoming a member with the
LitCap Marketplace. LitCap is an online marketplace providing legal financing for attorneys
from investors for their case related expenses. Once a member, the attorney places his case on
LitCap’s online platform where investors can view the case and finance the case cost expenses
for the attorney. The non-recourse loans through the LitCap Marketplace are based on a case by
case basis. Thus, collateral is not necessary for the attorney to receive the funds. LitCap’s
business model allows an attorney to grow his practice in a smarter way without using his
personal funds or worrying about a line of credit from a bank.
Please visit our website at https://litcapital.net/ for more information about our product.
Please fill out the membership application form to take the first step in solving your case
financing problems: http://litcapital.net/apply/

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855-645-8377 linda@litcap.net www.litcapital.net
Works Cited
“Caseload Highlights”. Estimating the Cost of Civil Litigation 20.1 (2013): n. pag. Web. 5 Aug. 2014.
“Expert Witness Fee Study”. Seak.com. 5 Aug. 2014.
Houghton, Dawn. “How Much Does It Cost to Hire a Court Reporter?”. Obrienandbails.com. 5 Aug. 2014.
---. “How Much Does Your Legal Deposition Transcript Really Cost?”. Obrienandbails.com. 5 Aug. 2014.
Towle, Griffith C. “Some Appproaches to Litigation Management”. Bzbm.com. 5 Aug. 2014.
“Trial Preparation”. Pinow.com. 5 Aug. 2014.
“What are Litigation Expenses?”. Brocklawoffices.com. 5 Aug. 2014.