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When one expensive dispute uses public justice time
How private litigation costs become a public queue
Published: 14 May 2026 | Reviewed: 14 May 2026
(3-minute read)
The bill is private.
The queue is public.
When a civil dispute enters court, it does not use only the parties’ money.
It uses a judge, court staff, hearing dates, courtroom space and time in a public system built for everyone.
That is why litigation cost matters even if you are not in litigation.
A private dispute can become a public burden.
Not because the case is wrong.
Not because the parties are bad.
Not because the lawyers have failed.
Because court time is limited.
When one matter takes more, another matter waits.
The public rarely sees this.
There is no sign outside the courthouse saying:
This case has used 47 public court days.
There is no receipt sent to the community.
There is no simple record showing how much public justice time one dispute has consumed.
The cost disappears quietly into adjournments, longer timetables, settlement pressure and people deciding not to bring a claim at all.
That is the hidden public cost of expensive litigation.
It is not just the bill.
It is the queue.
Civil litigation rarely becomes expensive all at once.
It grows in steps:
one more affidavit,
one more expert report,
one more procedural argument,
one more amended timetable,
one more round of preparation before settlement.
Each step may be lawful, reasonable and explainable.
But the court system carries the total.
A case can become heavy without any single step looking excessive at the time.
That is the problem: not scandal, not blame, but accumulation.
“The parties are paying for it” is not the full answer.
They may pay their lawyers, experts and filing fees.
But they are not buying a private court.
They are using a public institution.
Courts are shared infrastructure.
If one ambulance is tied up, someone else waits.
If one courtroom is tied up, someone else waits too.
Court delay is quieter.
There is no siren.
There is no camera.
There is no image of the small business that settles badly because it cannot keep fighting.
There is no image of the homeowner who gives up.
There is no image of the worker who never starts.
A justice system weakens before it collapses.
It weakens when ordinary people stop believing they can use it.
Some expensive cases are necessary.
Some need experts. Some need long hearings.
Some class actions make claims possible where no individual could afford to sue alone.
Some difficult cases clarify the law for everyone.
That is exactly why visibility matters.
The system should be able to see, early enough,
whether public justice time is being used well.
Not after years of work.
Not only when settlement is ready.
Not only when the bill is disputed.
Earlier.
Before the dispute gathers so much cost, risk and momentum
that continuing feels easier than stopping.
A case may settle before trial and still consume years of public and private resources.
A class action may announce a large settlement, while the real result depends on what remains after legal costs, funding charges and administration costs.
The headline is rarely the whole story.
The net result is the story.
The same is true of public justice time.
The question is not only: Did the case end?
The better question is: What public time did it use to get there?
By the time that question is asked, much of the answer may already be fixed.
The work has been done.
The experts have been briefed.
The documents have been prepared.
The positions have hardened.
The money has been spent.
The public time has been used.
Litigation cost is not just a private concern.
It is a public justice concern.
Courts do not belong only to people already in litigation.
They belong to everyone who may one day need them.
A fair system does not need every dispute to be cheap.
It needs cost and public time to become visible before someone else is made to wait.
Because when public justice time is used without enough visibility, the person who pays may not be in the courtroom.
They may be the person waiting behind it.
By Nicky Wang
Principal Solicitor
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