Going to court: costs and timing

What published sources say about federal court filing fees, how long federal civil cases take, lawyer rates and fee-shifting, with the year and meaning of each number.

No neutral source gives a single cost or timeline for a franchise termination case. What exists is pieces: a court filing fee, court statistics on how long civil cases take, general lawyer rate surveys, and examples from decided cases. Each is described below with its year and what it measures. None of them is a prediction for any one dispute.

Many agreements send disputes to arbitration instead of court. See the AAA fee schedule for that route, and forum-selection clauses for where a court case may have to be filed.

Filing a federal case

The statutory civil filing fee in federal district court is $350 (28 U.S.C. 1914(a)). The Judicial Conference fee schedule adds a $55 administrative fee, so starting a federal civil case costs $405 in total. That total is our sum of the two published figures. The $55 fee does not apply to a person granted in forma pauperis status. State court fees differ and were not collected here.

How long federal civil cases take

The U.S. Courts publishes the median time from filing to disposition for each federal district. In its comparison of districts for the 12 months ending 30 June 2026, the civil figures run from 3.4 months in the fastest district to 84.4 months in the slowest. Across the 93 districts in that document, the middle district figure is about 7.7 months (our own tally of the published district figures).

Two cautions apply. First, disposition means the case ended, which includes settlements and dismissals, not only trials. Second, the same tables have a separate, much longer row for filing to trial. In the District of Massachusetts, for example, the civil median from filing to trial was 33.1 months for that period. The published document gives no single national figure, and no figure for a franchise case in particular.

Lawyer rates

Clio's page, updated October 2026, reports a US average lawyer rate of $362 an hour, drawn from anonymized data of users of its practice-management software. Its civil litigation average is $368 and its contracts average is $384. Clio's page has no franchise-law row among the rows read, and the sample is not random.

Two state bar surveys give older, broader numbers. The State Bar of Michigan's 2023 report (2022 data, all practice areas, Michigan lawyers) put the median private-practice hourly rate at $300. The Florida Bar's 2022 survey found 85 percent of responding lawyers listing an hourly rate over $275. None of these is a price for franchise work, and no neutral franchise-specific rate survey was found.

Fee-shifting and mediation

Some agreements make the loser pay the other side's lawyers. In NGM Mgt. Group v. Bareburger Group (N.Y. App. Div., 1st Dept, 2024), the court held the franchisor was entitled to summary judgment on liability for its attorneys' fees under the franchise agreements. That outcome turned on the contract's fee clause and New York law; whether your agreement has one is a question for the document itself.

Mediation is another step some courts offer. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia says its mediation program is offered without fees to parties and leaves litigation rights preserved (program FAQs dated 2018). That is one court; programs and fees differ elsewhere. See mediation in franchise disputes.

For what lawyers say about their own fees, see franchise termination lawyer cost. A lawyer licensed in your state can explain the costs and timing that fit your agreement and the court that would hear the case.

Where this came from

Read next

Check your notice