Litigation Costs – Factors

When you suffer injury or loss as a result of someone else’s negligence you can get compensation. Such compensation can be done by filing a personal injury claim. Even with a lawyer contingency fee agreement, there are other costs that will result from taking your case to court. This article and a subsequent one will discuss the costs linked with taking your personal injury case to court (litigation costs).

When settlement negotiations and agreements fail, a personal injury case goes to court. Unfortunately, there are many costs linked to this. By definition litigation is “the process of resolving disputes by filing or answering a complaint through the public court system”. There are many processes included in the litigation process and it can be very expensive. There are number of aspects that make litigation expensive, therefore, when a settlement offer is made, we link the costs. However, there a number of these factors linked to the expensiveness of litigation.

Factors Linked With Litigation Costs

Some of these factors include:

• Administrative fees – lawsuits use many documents and thus requires many services. These fees include the following service:

– copying

– delivery services

– message services

– transcribing of documents

– hiring a court reporter to take depositions

– making copies of transcripts or medical reports

– sending high priority documents

• Court filing fees – the cost of service of process is included in court and filing fees. While they amount to a few tens of dollars, during a trial the cost may get to several hundreds or thousands of dollars.
• Other expenses – out of pocket expenses are also incurred that add up. These costs are incurred by the lawyer and witnesses. They may include:

– travel costs

– renting of vehicles

– overnight stays

• Cost of time – one cost that cannot be matched is that of time. The amount of time it takes to resolve a personal injury matter is at least a year. And this is before the award is actually paid.

For legal advice and representation in your personal injury claim speak to a Vinson Law Office attorney.