How Much Justice Cost Me

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When people ask, “Why didn’t you just go to court and let the system work?”, this is the answer.

This is what it cost me just to ask for accountability after my landlord entered my home while I was naked and vulnerable:

• $4,193.66 in “costs” to my landlord and his legal team
   
• + 10% interest per year until it’s paid
   

This includes their:

• court reporters
   
• deposition transcripts
   
• photocopies
   
• postage
   
• airfare and hotel for a witness they flew in for a one-hour testimony
   

I am the victim in this story, yet I’m paying the people who harmed me.

As of October 1, 2025, my legal bill to my own lawyers was already around $16,000.

That was before:

• trial prep
   
• the 3 days of bench trial
   
• post-trial work
   
• reviewing orders and judgments
   
• closing out the case
   

Once the final invoice is issued, I expect my attorney fees alone to total at least $35,000–$40,000+.

When you combine what I owe the defendants with what I owe my own attorneys, a conservative estimate looks like this:

• Defendants’ costs (court-ordered): $4,193.66
   
• My own attorneys (estimated): $35,000–$40,000+
   
• Total justice price tag for me personally: $40,000–$45,000+
   

And that’s just money.

It doesn’t include:

• the nights I couldn’t sleep
   
• the panic and shame of reliving the incident
   
• the impact on my work and mental health
   
• the way it changed how safe I feel in my own home
   

This is the reality almost no one sees:

In this system, “having your day in court” can cost more than a new car, a house down payment, or years of retirement savings—even when you are the victim.

I’m sharing these numbers openly because I don’t want anyone to look at my story and think:

“He lost his case, so it must not have been that bad.”

It was that bad.

And then the system made me pay tens of thousands of dollars for the privilege of being told my trauma didn’t count.