LITIGATION · MAR 2026
What a Cook County trial actually costs
An honest budget breakdown — discovery, experts, and the two line items clients never expect.
Pleadings and early motions
Getting to a settled set of issues is usually the cheapest phase and the one clients most want to skip. Do not skip it. A motion to dismiss that removes two of five counts changes the shape of discovery, and discovery is where the money is. Budget modestly here and expect the return later.
Discovery is the budget
In a commercial case of moderate size, document review and depositions routinely account for well over half the total. The single biggest lever is scope: how many custodians, how many years, how many search terms. Agree those with the other side in writing early, because an unbounded ESI protocol is an unbounded invoice.
Experts, and why estimates slip
An expert’s own fee is predictable. What is not predictable is the second round — the rebuttal report, the deposition, and the Daubert motion that follows a report drafted too broadly. When we budget an expert we budget the whole sequence, and we tell you at engagement that the sequence is what you are buying.
The two line items clients never expect
First, trial technology and demonstratives: a two-week trial with an exhibit database and a graphics consultant is a real, five-figure line. Second, your own people’s time — the executives who sit for depositions and attend trial are not billing anyone during those weeks. Neither appears on a legal budget, and both are felt.
How we keep the number honest
You get a written phase budget in the first month and a revision every quarter, each with what changed and why. If a phase is going to exceed its budget you hear it before it does, not on the invoice. That is not a courtesy; it is the only way a litigation budget means anything.