The cost bill filed by Google underscores the intensity of this case and shows that we caught only <i>surface glimpses</i> of what surely were day-to-day firefights keeping the lawyers and their minions going round-the-clock for an intense year's worth of fighting.<p>A "cost bill" is not a bill for the attorneys' fees incurred in a case. Under U.S. rules, the parties bear their own legal fees in most cases (and that is the case here).<p>But federal court rules do permit a prevailing party to recover from the losing party necessary costs incurred in dealing with document production and similar matters in the litigation. The out-of-pocket bill here (not including attorneys' fees) for Google to filter through 97 million documents and to produce just over 3 million of them after careful assessment and screening: about $2.9 million (mostly paid to electronic discovery service providers, who surely found full-time employment in this case during this past year).<p>The bulk of the remaining bill for costs consists of nearly $1 million paid to expert witnesses for their assistance in helping to prepare and present Google's case.<p>In a case like this, Google's attorneys' fees had to run at least $10 million <i>per month</i>, at least during the intense phases of the case. I would estimate, then, that total attorneys' fees in the case <i>easily</i> exceeded $100 million and may well have done so <i>for Google alone</i>.<p>Big Law may be in the doldrums today in general but a case like this clearly offers a big payday. The law firms here were all exemplary and undoubtedly earned it. Still, the cost is staggering to contemplate for the casual outside observer.