A long piece by Than N. Luu, entitled “Reducing the Costs of Civil Litigation,”” [http://w3.uchastings.edu/plri/fal95tex/cstslit.html] suggested a way litigants – which I read as opposing parties, not co-parties — could reduce their overall costs. They could “handle imaging and photocopying by copying their documents with the same company and [at] the same time for an additional price break.” Similarly, they could save money “by sharing the costs of document numbering services, inventory indexing, hiring stenographers and court reporters, and calling neutral experts.” [See my post on March 5, 2005 about a blog on e-discovery.]
My humble thought: don’t shave disbursement costs, resolve the dispute.