How much does it cost to fight a legal battle all the way to the Supreme Court?

Answer 1

A lot. Unfortunately, there is no way to write a definitive answer to this question due to the number of variables affecting expenses.

Perhaps the best documented and most studied area regarding cost of litigation is related to capital punishment. One Kansas study estimated the cost of pursuing a capital punishment case through the US Supreme Court averaged approximately 1.26 million dollars (per case), in legal expenses alone (this did not include the cost of housing the prisoner).

Answer 2

The docketing fee for filing a paid case is $300, plus whatever it costs to make 40 copies of everything you submit. These expenses are waived if the court allows you to proceed in forma pauperis (Latin: as a pauper) because you can't afford the expense. About half the cases on the Court's docket are accepted in this manner.

There are no other direct court costs associated with a Supreme Court hearing; however, the true cost of moving a case through the appellate system to a Supreme Court decision has been estimated at around one million dollars due to the amount of legal work and research involved.

Individuals don't necessarily pay this expense out of pocket, however. If the case is important enough to warrant a Supreme Court hearing, particularly if the matter involves civil rights, organizations like the ACLU and NAACP may provide free legal research and counsel, and absorb the cost of litigation as a public service.