No honest lawyer can quote a single number for a court case before understanding it. What an honest lawyer can do is show you the structure of the cost, so that every number you are later quoted has a place.
Why There Is No Single Number
A court case is not a product with a price. Its cost depends on how far it goes, and how far it goes depends partly on the other side. A claim that settles after a well-drafted letter costs a fraction of the same claim fought to trial. Anyone who quotes you one confident figure for the whole journey, before reading a document, is guessing, and you should treat the guess accordingly.
What can be given honestly is the structure: what kinds of cost exist, when each arises, and which decisions control them. That is this article.
The Three Buckets
Litigation cost in Cyprus falls into three buckets. The first is your own lawyer's fees: the work of assessing, drafting, appearing and negotiating. The second is disbursements: amounts paid out to others along the way, court filing fees, service of documents, expert reports where the case needs them, translations where documents are not in the language of the court. The third is risk: the possibility of being ordered to contribute to the other side's costs if you lose.
The three behave differently. Fees are the bucket you control most, because they follow the work you authorise. Disbursements are mostly fixed by the nature of the case. The risk bucket is controlled by one thing above all: the quality of the assessment made before proceedings start.
How We Charge, and Why
Our method is the one we describe on every practice page, because it is the one we actually follow. The first piece of work is a written assessment for a fixed fee: the strength of the position, the realistic routes, and what each route costs. After that, nothing is spent without your decision, and fixed fees are used wherever the work is genuinely definable: a stage, an application, a letter, an appearance. Where a stage cannot honestly be fixed in advance, we say so, and we say why.
The question to ask any lawyer is not "what will the whole case cost" but "what will the next stage cost, and what decision does it buy me". The first question has no honest answer. The second always does.
The Costs Order at the End
At the end of a case the court decides who bears the costs, and the general practice is that the unsuccessful party is ordered to contribute to the successful party's costs. Two honest caveats belong next to that sentence. The contribution is assessed by reference to scales and rules, and it rarely covers everything the winner actually spent: winning has a net cost too. And conduct matters: the way each side behaved, before and during the proceedings, can move the costs decision in either direction.
That second point deserves emphasis, because it changed. The Civil Procedure Rules of 2023 tie the parties' conduct, including conduct before the action is even filed, to the court's powers on costs. A party that ignored a reasonable letter, or ran a hopeless point for leverage, can expect to hear about it when costs are decided.
What Actually Drives Cost Up
Four things, in our experience, and clients control more of them than they think. Contested facts that need many witnesses, where a document would have settled the point: this is why the file you kept matters more than the story you remember. Expert evidence, which is indispensable where the standard is technical and expensive everywhere. Interim applications, each a small case inside the case. And volume: every additional claim, party and document multiplies work. A focused case about the strongest point is regularly cheaper and more successful than a wide one about everything.
The Cost That Is Not Money
Litigation consumes attention. Documents must be found and disclosed, statements prepared, hearings attended, decisions made at inconvenient times, for months or years. For a business, the management time spent on a dispute is a real cost that never appears on an invoice. It belongs in the decision at the start: some claims are worth the money and not the attention.
How Cost Is Kept Down
The honest levers are known. An early, written assessment, so money is only spent on positions that deserve it. Testing settlement at the moments when the other side has most to lose by continuing, because most cases end in agreement and the good ones end early. Respecting the contract's dispute clause, because fighting about the forum is pure cost. And stopping when the assessment changes: the willingness to end a case that has stopped deserving investment is worth more than any discount.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why will no one quote me one figure for the whole case?
Because the total depends on how the other side behaves, which no one can promise. What can be quoted honestly is the cost of the next stage, fixed where the work is definable. A whole-case figure given before the file is read is marketing, not an estimate.
If I win, do I get all my costs back?
Usually the losing side is ordered to contribute, and the contribution is assessed under scales and rules rather than simply matching what you spent. Expect a meaningful contribution, not full reimbursement. This is one more reason early settlement on good terms often beats a win at trial.
Is settling a sign the case was weak?
No. Most cases settle, and preparing a case properly is usually what produces the good settlement: the point of being ready for trial is to be offered the case's value without one.
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By Klitos Platis, Advocate
Klitos advises on litigation, corporate and commercial law, real estate, construction and energy at Kleanthous & Platis LLC in Nicosia.
This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Laws and their application can change, and individual circumstances differ. For advice on your own matter, contact Klitos Platis at klitos@kleanthousplatis.com or telephone +357 22 680 330.
Klitos Platis
Advocate, Partner
Kleanthous & Platis LLC, Nicosia · Published 3 August 2026
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