120k ~= 100 days of work for a reasonably skilled attorney who know about the (very niche) topic, including office costs (which in turn include the salary of the secretary, stamps etc). Or 150 days of work if it's split between a lawyer and some paralegals.
At this point one might object that lawyers make too much money, but then I'd like to say that most everybody on this site working for a big company, or working for their own, costs this much or charges this much (or should charge as much, if they're 'professionals' and not 'I can set up Wordpress'-style workers).
Also, let's say that there are no expenses, i.e. only lawyers who live close to wherever the cases are heard (no plane tickets, no hotels), that all proceeding are in the same location, that the defendant is held somewhere close as well, that everybody working the case drives cars that run on air etc.
So then we have ~ 6 months, for a single person with some part-time help to do the menial stuff, to research the case, prepare all briefs, do all trial prep work (I don't know anything about this case but let's say you want to call 3 character witnesses. That's a week right there just selecting them, convincing them to come, prepping them, filing the paperwork etc.); to do the PR; to work with other stakeholders; the actual proceedings (which might span several court sessions - motion for this and that, pre-trial hearing(s), the actual trial, etc. I think it's clear that a single person can't do all of this in 6 months.
It's just what things cost in the real world. But hey, it could have been worse, you could've gone to court in Europe - in which case you'd get to pay between 15 and 25% VAT on top of it (probably not in all European countries, before someone jumps on that).
Well look at that after I hit 'reply', the top post is 'estimate cost for your apps'! It looks like one can buy a legal defense for a highly complex case with world-wide attention for the cost of 2 medium-sized iOS apps, with only 'basic' level of finish, and no more than some simple sign up and in-app purchase functionality!
At this point one might object that lawyers make too much money, but then I'd like to say that most everybody on this site working for a big company, or working for their own, costs this much or charges this much (or should charge as much, if they're 'professionals' and not 'I can set up Wordpress'-style workers).
Also, let's say that there are no expenses, i.e. only lawyers who live close to wherever the cases are heard (no plane tickets, no hotels), that all proceeding are in the same location, that the defendant is held somewhere close as well, that everybody working the case drives cars that run on air etc.
So then we have ~ 6 months, for a single person with some part-time help to do the menial stuff, to research the case, prepare all briefs, do all trial prep work (I don't know anything about this case but let's say you want to call 3 character witnesses. That's a week right there just selecting them, convincing them to come, prepping them, filing the paperwork etc.); to do the PR; to work with other stakeholders; the actual proceedings (which might span several court sessions - motion for this and that, pre-trial hearing(s), the actual trial, etc. I think it's clear that a single person can't do all of this in 6 months.
It's just what things cost in the real world. But hey, it could have been worse, you could've gone to court in Europe - in which case you'd get to pay between 15 and 25% VAT on top of it (probably not in all European countries, before someone jumps on that).