Everyone asks this question. Most lawyers won’t answer it directly.
Why? Two reasons:
- Legal work is genuinely hard to scope.
- Many lawyers charge inconsistently and don’t want clients to know how much they really cost.
We don’t play that game. As of 2025, our standard hourly rate is $695. We offer select discounts for qualifying localities and small businesses (see our Small Business Program). We also offer modest discounts for bulk hourly packages. But beyond that, we don’t negotiate our rates.
And because we’re a public benefit corporation that uses commercial work to fund pro bono and public interest services, we’re not afraid to be transparent.
So here’s the truth about what commercial litigation costs.
Four Ways to Pay a Commercial Litigation Lawyer
There are four basic billing models for business litigation:
- Hourly — You pay for each hour worked. Most common.
- Contingency — The lawyer gets paid a percentage only if you win. Rare in commercial litigation.
- Hybrid — A lower hourly rate plus a success fee if things go well.
- Flat Fee — A single fixed amount, regardless of time spent. This is almost always a terrible deal for complex cases.
Most commercial litigation firms—especially those doing serious work—charge hourly. That’s fair: their inventory is their lawyers’ time.
Step 1: Understand Hourly Rates
In the Northeast U.S., here’s the range:
- Elite BigLaw: $1,200–$1,700/hour. Star partners: $2,000+
- Scrappy Solos: $300–$400/hour (usually fewer resources)
- Mid-Level Firms & Elite Boutiques (like us, on a good day): $400–$1,000/hour. This is the norm.
We’re on the conservative side of that spectrum at $695/hour. You get a team, not just a solo attorney—and we don’t overload cases with six associates billing for every breath.
But here’s the trade-off:
- Low-cost lawyers = slower turnaround, lower bandwidth, and less responsiveness.
- High-cost firms = higher bills, but more coverage and better defense when things get intense.
If a firm lacks staff or systems, your case might stall—or worse, your lawyer might ghost you. Overwhelmed lawyers rush filings, miss facts, and get cantankerous. (We’ve seen lawyers howl on phone calls because they couldn’t keep up.) Bandwidth matters.
Step 2: Understand Hour Volume
Now you know the rate. But how many hours will it take?
Most law firms (even good ones) estimate this via gut instinct. At Equal Justice Solutions, we do it differently. We actually scope the case.
Here’s our process:
- We gather facts, documents, and client narratives.
- We pull jury instructions, statutes, and elements of each cause of action.
- We build a trial plan first, then backward plan everything we’ll need to prove.
- Another senior attorney “red teams” the plan to find weak spots.
This takes time. Typically, 30+ attorney hours just to create the strategy and provide a scope. That’s why we offer an Initial Litigation Retainer Package to give clients clarity upfront.
Once scoped, we begin drafting the complaint—the document that starts the case.
So you found the lawyer, and you’ve got the price. Now the real thing is to scope out the hours.
Now, most law firms—not all, but most—do it like this: the partner just kind of “feels it out.” They scope the case based on some combination of experience, instinct, and the vague, ineffable je ne sais quoi that governs legal billing in America. A few of us, including our firm, actually do it differently.
At Equal Justice Solutions, we have a structured, written process. First, we gather all the facts from you. We understand the dispute, your goals, the documents, and who the parties are. Then, based on that narrative, we begin identifying legal issues. We don’t guess—we pull up the jury instructions that would govern if this went to trial. We then backward-plan every element that needs to be proven, and flag any weaknesses in advance.
Then, we bring in another attorney to poke holes in our case strategy—a process we internally call “red-teaming.” The goal is to identify surprises before opposing counsel does. The result? A strategic foundation that is clearer, stronger, and far more accurate.
But it takes time. Just this initial strategy and scoping phase often takes 30+ hours of attorney time. That’s why we offer an Initial Litigation Retainer Package specifically for this phase. Once complete, you’ll have a real plan—not just vibes.
The Complaint: It Matters More Than You Think
The next step is drafting the complaint. In simple terms, this is the document that explains to the court (and your opponent) what the lawsuit is about and why the court should allow it to proceed.
In the old days, complaints could be short. You’d file a few pages, allege some claims, and figure it out in discovery. Not anymore.
Thanks to federal pleading standards clarified in Bell Atlantic v. Twombly and Ashcroft v. Iqbal, complaints in federal court now have to show plausibility, not just possibility. If you’re alleging fraud, you also have to meet the heightened requirements of Rule 9(b), which requires particularity. That means more facts, more evidence, and a clearer narrative up front.
Beyond that, your complaint is public. It’s very often the first impression the judge, the opposing side, and sometimes even the media will have of your case. And because it’s privileged, you can often include evidence and storylines without defamation risk. For that reason, we often recommend clients lead with a tight, compelling narrative on page one.
A well-drafted complaint also dramatically increases your chances of early settlement. Opposing counsel will take you more seriously. Insurance carriers might open their checkbooks. Judges won’t roll their eyes.
That said, it takes work.
Depending on the complexity, number of claims, and length, complaints can range from 50 to 200+ attorney hours. That includes our standard internal process of red-teaming every claim to ensure it survives a motion to dismiss.
And yes, you might have to amend the complaint once or twice. That can easily tack on another 50-100 hours, depending on what new facts come to light.
What Is a Motion to Dismiss?
A motion to dismiss is the first real inflection point in litigation. It’s where the defense says: “Even if everything in this complaint is true, there’s no legal claim here. Toss it.”
Once used sparingly, motions to dismiss have become routine. They’re now almost always filed in commercial litigation, and courts take them seriously. A strong motion can knock out claims early and save clients hundreds of thousands in discovery costs. Not to mention, they’ve won the case.
But that means your complaint has to be airtight. If you’re sloppy or vague, your case can get tossed before discovery even starts.
What If You're the Defendant?
If you’re on the defense side, the process looks slightly different but is no less intense.
We still begin with the same strategy workup: full intake, fact development, jury instructions, legal issue spotting, and internal red-teaming. But we also conduct a full factual investigation: what’s the real exposure? Are there non-litigation exposure (reputation, investor risk, regulatory risk, etc.). Are there insurance policies in play? Can this be resolved early? Whose driving the litigation on the other side? Are they reasonable or irrational? Etc.
Then we go line by line through the complaint and flag every weak point. If we see openings, we file a motion to dismiss. The work required here—between strategy, factual review, motion drafting, and briefing—usually runs 100 to 150 hours, depending on complexity.
Could you just answer the complaint? Sure. But doing that essentially concedes that you’re going to discovery—the next (and often most expensive) phase of litigation. Filing a strong motion to dismiss isn’t just defense. It’s leverage.
And if you skip it, you lose that leverage fast.
Discovery: The Wallet Killer of Commercial Litigation
Let’s not sugarcoat it: discovery is where commercial litigation gets really expensive—and really annoying.
In America, unlike Europe and other civil law systems, the lawyers, not the courts, run discovery. That means, lawyers don’t need a court order or judicial approval to demand documents, issue subpoenas to third parties, or compel written or oral testimony. The consequences of this system are foreseeable.
Whether you’re in federal court, state court, or the Delaware Chancery, the gist is the same: each side demands a mountain of information from the other. This includes emails, texts, files, drafts, Slack messages, calendar invites, and anything else that might possibly be relevant. It’s intrusive. It’s tedious. And it’s expensive.
Expect this:
- You’ll probably have to turn over your work and personal emails.
- Your lawyers will comb through it.
- Discovery vendors (who are not cheap) will comb through it.
- Then opposing counsel combs through it.
- And then the judge might get involved if people start fighting.
You’re not just handing over files—you’re handing over your digital life.
And it goes back years. Most discovery requests look back three to six years, which in digital terms is an eternity. Think about how many emails, texts, and documents you generate in a day. Now multiply that by 1,000. Then make lawyers read all of it.
“But We’ll Just Use Technology, Right?”
Yes, Technology Assisted Review (TAR) helps. So does narrowing the scope through meet-and-confers. But at the end of the day, you’re still looking for the smoking gun in a sea of digital noise. Think about it—do you want to miss the case winning email to save a few minutes of attorney time? Nope. So this exercise takes time. A lot of it.
Then it gets worse.
You send document subpoenas to third parties, and they complain. You negotiate. Maybe you file a motion to compel. Maybe the judge gets involved. And when they do? That’s usually a two-hour hearing where the magistrate yells at both sides and tells them to “work it out.” Thanks, Judge.
Oh—and don’t forget interrogatories. These are written questions sent by one party to the other. Everyone knows the lawyers draft the answers, but they’re still required. Technically helpful. Practically? Meh.
But they still require lawyers to sit down with clients, get answers, confirm them with documents, and then phrase them properly enough to be responsive but not allow them to be taken out of context. The result: a ton of time, for items seldom introduced at trial.
Depositions: America’s Favorite Pretrial Sport
In the U.K., you just go to trial. In America? We do depositions.
It’s an under-oath interview, usually in a law office, where lawyers ask witnesses (and each other) every question they can think of—on the record, with a court reporter and sometimes a videographer present. It’s discovery’s Super Bowl.
In federal court, you get 7 hours per witness. In some states, like Pennsylvania, there’s no practical limit. Most witnesses only really need 1-2 hours, but here’s the dirty secret: no one knows which questions will matter at trial. So guess what? Everyone asks everything:
- Now imagine doing that 15–20 times. Each deposition has:
- Prep time (10–20 hours)
- The deposition itself (7–10 hours, once you include setup, breaks, postmortem)
- Follow-up and transcript review
And then you read the transcript and realize… wait—they mentioned a new person. Now they need to be deposed. Welcome to the rabbit hole.
Discovery Games: The Dark Arts
Discovery isn’t just time-consuming—for too many unscrupulous lawyers, it’s a game of attrition. And smart but ethically questionable opposing counsel know exactly how to weaponize it:
- Doc-dumps (producing a million files and hoping you miss the important one, though actually an amateur move in the era of TAR. I got pretty good at this when I worked for the Delaware Attorney General’s Fraud and Consumer Protection Division and companies would dump 1,000,000 documents (yes, really) on me a few days before deposition)
- Withholding docs so you have to file a motion, only to produce them after you’ve wasted your time
- Subpoenas to third parties just to rattle cages
- Depositions of irrelevant people to run up your bill
- Endless emails arguing over search terms
- Demands for ‘meet and confers’ to try to resolve disagreements, with no intention of resolving anything.
Of course, not all lawyers do this. We don’t at Equal Justice Solutions. But you need to be aware this kind of gamesmanship is real—and it drives costs up fast.
And what happens when things get really heated? You end up in front of a judge or magistrate who’s already tired, annoyed, and suspicious of both sides. Even judges admit—at bench and bar events—that discovery disputes are where litigation gets the ugliest.
And unlike dispositive motions, where judges often write detailed opinions, most discovery fights get resolved informally: short minute orders, quick docket entries, or rulings from the bench. Some judges are sharp, fair, and efficient. Others—well—tend to create three new problems for every one they try to solve, usually by being ambiguous or trying to split the baby in ways that satisfy no one.
Good judges or magistrates will sometimes step in as informal mediators—hopping on video or a phone call to move things forward. Others refuse to hear a word unless it’s fully briefed, complete with motion, response, reply, and in-person oral argument at the courthouse.
In other words: judicial temperament and case management style (or lack thereof) can absolutely shape your litigation costs. Sometimes more than the law itself.
Discovery Hours: A Real Estimate
Here’s what we typically see in a mid-sized commercial case, again depending on document size, witness list, etc. :
- Document review and production: 100-200+ hours
- Depositions (prep, conduct, follow-up): 150-250+ hours
That’s not hyperbole. That’s experience.
This is also why discovery blows up budgets. It’s unpredictable. It’s fluid. It’s adversarial. And you don’t get to skip it just because you want to be efficient.
You can try to be fair and cooperative. We do. The Sedona Conference says we should all play nice. And sometimes, you get opposing counsel who shares this belief.
But let’s be honest—plenty don’t.
One time, as a newly graduated lawyer, I went to a bench and bar event at a prominent federal court in the east coast. An old, respected senior federal judge came to me, and we started talking. I asked him what advice he had for a new practitioner. He told me, “son, in my day, we had civility. Now, everyone tries to go scorched earth and run up each other’s costs in discovery. So good luck.” Thanks, Judge.
A Final Thought from Your Favorite Business Litigation Lawyer
Before the 1938 rule changes, there was almost no discovery. Trials were faster. Less paper. Fewer games.
Then came the electronic discovery boom. And now? Every text message from 2017 is potentially Exhibit A.
If you’re walking into commercial litigation thinking you’ll be able to control the cost without accounting for discovery—you’re setting yourself up to be blindsided. Discovery is the beast. And if you want to ride it, you better saddle up.
Or as Jesus said (and we paraphrase freely in the litigation world):
“Take up your cross and follow me.”
If you’re a lawyer, discovery is part of that cross.
Expert Witnesses: Discovery’s Final Boss
Just when you thought you were done with discovery, here comes the final boss: expert witnesses.
If you think lawyers charge a lot, wait until you meet commercial litigation experts—especially valuation specialists, accountants, economists, and board-governance folks. They often bill at rates equal to or higher than senior attorneys.
In federal court and Delaware Chancery, experts usually have to submit full-blown written reports. In New York state court, it’s not required—but in high-level cases, most parties agree to it anyway. Why? Because if it’s not in writing, it’s probably not coming in.
After that, the expert gets deposed. Then you defend the report. Then you argue over its admissibility.
Estimated time cost?
- Expert prep, report, deposition: ~100 attorney hours (more if you have multiple experts or complex financials)
Daubert: The Trial Within the Trial
Once the expert is locked in, opposing counsel often files a Daubert motion—asking the court to exclude the expert’s opinions entirely.
Daubert was supposed to keep junk science out of court. In reality? It’s a trial within a trial—except no one wears robes, and everyone argues about statistical methodology, credentials, regression models, or governance standards.
Estimated time cost?
- Daubert briefing & prep: 40–50 attorney hours per expert
If your case has two or three experts per side, you’re looking at 100+ hours easy just to defend your team.
Summary Judgment: The Pretrial Gauntlet
At this point, you’d think you’re ready for trial.
But wait. There’s summary judgment.
In theory, it’s a motion that says, “There’s no dispute of material fact—so let’s skip the trial and just rule now.” In practice, it’s the most work-intensive, evidence-heavy stage in the entire case besides trial itself.
You build your case as if you are going to trial—assembling transcripts, documents, charts, emails, spreadsheets, timelines, everything. The goal is to convince the judge that there’s no need for jurors.
Estimated time cost?
- Summary judgment briefing, evidence, and prep: 100–200 attorney hours
If you win, great—you might avoid trial. If you lose, well… get ready to do it all again, but in a courtroom.
And here’s the kicker: judges often sit on summary judgment motions for months. We’ve seen decisions take 6 to 12 months—sometimes longer—because they’re high stakes, high volume, and high liability for everyone involved.
Trial: The Marathon After the Marathon
So, summary judgment is done. You’ve been through the ringer. And if the case didn’t settle already—which it usually does around now, just from exhaustion or cost—it’s trial time.
Why didn’t it settle? Could be money. Could be legal issues. But most of the time, it’s ego. Someone’s still riding the train.
So, what happens now?
Trial Prep: Start Over, Again
Welcome to trial prep, where you basically redo your entire case from scratch—but this time, for the jury.
You need to:
- Identify which exhibits you’re actually going to introduce (yes, from the mountain you produced in discovery)
- Create a final exhibit list
- Draft and file a witness list
- Prep your witnesses, many of whom don’t remember anything or don’t want to testify
In federal court, you often have to file your exhibit and witness lists months before trial. Why? Who knows. In New York, it’s the opposite—especially in the outer boroughs. If it was produced in discovery? Good luck—it might just come in.
- Witnesses? Same chaos:
- Did you depose them? Doesn’t matter.
- Didn’t depose them, but they talked to you on the phone once? That’s good enough—sometimes.
- As long as they were in your initial disclosures, you’re probably safe. (Oh, right—initial disclosures. That weird federal rule where you list every human being on Earth who might have knowledge, just to be safe. Delaware doesn’t even require them. But forget them and your witness gets booted.)
Motions in Limine: Annoying but Necessary
Then come the motions in limine—pretrial requests to exclude certain evidence. They’re tedious, annoying, and often result in the judge saying, “Let’s wait to see how trial evolves.” Cool. Thanks, Judge.
Final Pretrial Conference
Here’s where the judge pulls everyone in to yell at both sides. You argue about motions, logistics, and whether someone’s exhibit list is 400 items too long. No one is happy.
Mediation (Again)
At this point, you’ll probably get ordered to mediation—often with the magistrate judge.
What’s that like?
Imagine a grumpy old lawyer who’s seen 4,000 of these cases and wants none of your drama:
- They tell both sides their case sucks
- They storm out in frustration
- They tell you you’re all wasting time and money
- They try to settle it in two hours anyway
Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t.
Voir Dire: Jury Picking or Jury Roulette?
Now comes jury selection (aka voir dire).
- In federal court, you rarely get to pick your jury. The judge does it. They ask three or four generic questions. “Anyone here hate lawsuits?” “Anyone work for a bank?” Boom. You have a jury.
- In New York, you actually get to pick your jury—which turns into a three-day circus of sidebars, peremptory strikes, and staring into people’s souls. It’s kind of fun, but it’s a time suck.
Trial: The Grind
Finally—trial.
It’s kind of exhilarating. But mostly it’s a slog:
- 16-hour days
- Object to everything, constantly (so you don’t blow your appeal)
- Fight over every exhibit
- Stay up at night fixing PowerPoints and witness outlines
Then there’s jury instructions—the most important part of the whole trial. This is where you bring in your appellate lawyer, go full-court press, and fight over every word. The charge conference is where smart lawyers preserve error, and dumb lawyers screw up the appeal.
Then: closing arguments. Then: jury deliberates. Then finally, a verdict.
And guess what?
The Verdict Isn’t the End
Nope.
The losing party files a motion for a new trial—every time. No one accepts the result. Ever.
Then the judge sits on that for 6 to 12 months, writes a five-page order denying it, and says, “Let the record reflect the jury has spoken.”
And then comes the appeal.
Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose. Sometimes the appellate court says: “Reverse and remand for a new trial.”
And after three years, six rounds of motions, 40 depositions, three expert reports, and a trial?
You get to do it all over again.
So... Is Commercial Litigation Worth It?
We get asked that a lot. After everything we’ve just walked you through—the strategy, the complaints, the discovery hellscape, the expert duels, the summary judgment gauntlet, the trial circus, the never-ending appeals—the question becomes pretty simple:
Is this worth it?
We covered that question in depth in another post: Should You Sue? How to Think Like a Rational Litigator ← (insert link)
But let’s give you the final cost picture.
Here’s How Much A Commercial Litigation Case Costs, From A Business Litigation Lawyer
If the case doesn’t settle early (which, let’s be real, many don’t), here’s what you’re probably looking at:
- Initial strategy, complaint, motion to dismiss: 100–200+ hours
- Document discovery (collection, review, production): 100–200+ hours
- Depositions (prep, conduct, review): 150–250+ hours
- Experts & Daubert motions: 100–150+ hours
- Summary judgment stage: 100–200+ hours
- Trial prep and trial execution: 300–500+ hours
- Post-trial motions and appeal (if needed): 100–250+ hours
So, multiply this by an hourly rate. Let’s us ours:
- Early settlement after MTD ($695×150)=$104,250
- Settlement after document discovery and key depositions ($695×300)=$208,500
- Settlement after summary judgment and expert witnesses ($695×800)=$556,000
- Full throttle, through appeal ($695×1300)=$903,500
And, let’s say you get our small business program rate:
Early settlement after motion to dismiss
($400 x 150 hours) = $60,000
Settlement after document discovery and key depositions
($400 x 300 hours) = $120,000
Settlement after summary judgment and expert witnesses
($400 x 800 hours) = $320,000
Full throttle litigation through appeal
($400 x 1300 hours) = $520,000
Of course, these don’t include out of pocket costs, which include court filing fees, which are usually a fee thousand dollars (unless you are in Delaware Chancery Court, in which case, good luck, could be tens of thousands through trial), expert witnesses (varies a lot by case), e-discovery vendors ($5,000-$50,000+ just depending on document volume), transcript services and videographer (together, usually about $2,000-$4,000 per deposition), and various process servers.
Again—these are ranges, not quotes. Every case is different. Some settle after the motion to dismiss. Others spiral into three-year trench warfare. That’s why we offer our 30-Hour Litigation Strategy Package to clients before we quote full case costs. It lets us actually look at the facts, the documents, the venue, and the opponent—and scope the case with honesty.
Often, it’s a lot less. Sometimes, it’s more.
But let’s be clear:
If your case doesn’t settle early, expect to pay well into the six figures.
If it goes to trial, you’re looking at potential seven figures—especially if it’s a high-dollar, complex, or “bet the company” situation with multiple parties, experts, or scorched-earth tactics from the other side.
Count the Cost Before You Go to War
There’s a verse we often quote around here. It’s from Luke 14:31, where Jesus says:
“What king, going to war against another king, does not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?”
That’s litigation. It’s war. Not in the violent sense, but in the sense of strategy, sacrifice, and stamina. If you don’t count the cost at the outset, you might find yourself too deep in to turn back—and out of resources before you get a verdict.
There’s also a principle from Torah that applies here, too. In Leviticus 19:36:
“Use honest scales and honest weights… I am the Lord your God.”
It’s about justice—but it’s also about measurement. Know what you’re weighing. Be honest in how you measure it. That includes money, time, emotional toll, and opportunity cost.
We believe litigation can be righteous. But it’s not always the righteous path. And it’s not for the faint of heart.
That’s why we do it this way: with planning, transparency, and as honest of a cost assessment as we can give. If you’re going to pick this fight, you deserve to know what you’re walking into.
And if we’re the right team to help you through it—we’ll be ready.