[Igor_Bratnikov]

Roughly it will take about a year minimum of lawyering until the argument reaches the desk of a judge. Especially since patents are federal cases. You have prepare arguments, answer all requests, prove jurisdiction, etc and take depositions of everything. A partners time is north of 500$ an hour that adds up verrry quickly when you have a team working for you

[away]

Well that sounds really harsh. Can't you just try to do most of it yourself instead of paying someone $500/hr? I mean you are innocent until proven guilty.

[scott_s]

"Innocent until proven guilty" is a principle from criminal law. In the US, I believe that principle does not apply directly to civil law. A lawyer will have to explain if there is any mapping at all.

But, regarding the do-it-yourself-part, no, not really. First, the amount of work you have to do is a full-time job. Most people already have a full-time job, so it's not an option to deal with a civil case full-time. Second, there are many rules and regulations that a lay-person will just not know. It's not feasible for them to deal with a civil suit on their own. And, unlike criminal cases, in the US, you have no right to a lawyer for civil cases.

[nknight]

Not a lawyer (though at some point I should just say screw it and go to law school), but there's really no mapping as far as I know.

One of the things to remember about civil lawsuits are that the parties are generally treated as if they are on equal footing, and the standard of proof is "preponderance of the evidence", rather than "beyond reasonable doubt".

The criminal justice system is setup to mitigate the advantage of the government over the accused in a case that could result in loss of freedom (or even loss of life). The civil "justice" system is there to resolve disputes between theoretically equal parties in cases that mostly come down to money.

In practice, of course, our adversarial system gets thrown completely out of whack by that same money, but for the moment, the law is what it is.