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Canadian law departments increased spending slowly from 1973 through 1994

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“The State of Canadian Judicial Statistics: Trends in Canadian Civil Justice,” a report by three authors at The Fraser Institute [info@fraserinstitute.ca] presents data on the average annual (inflation adjusted) growth of civil legal spending by business over the 20 year period. The annual increase was 0.9% (pg 3). Making up that aggregate figure were declines in 1974-80 of -0.1% and in 1987-94 of -3.4% and increases in 1980-87 of 7.0% (pg. 5).

The authors calculated that business accounted for 35% of the CDN$11 billion spent in 1993 on civil legal services (pg. 4).

This report admirably collects and analyzes data. For example, it calculates the average cost per trial in Ontario and British Columbia courts – CDN$14,400 and CDN$18,000, respectively in 1993/94. They extensively discuss alternative dispute resolution in terms of comparative economics.