The Dotcom decade - and what it has cost the taxpayer 8 minutes to read The Government's lawyers have spent 40,500 hours working on Megaupload- and Kim Dotcom-related cases over the past decade. If those lawyers were working 40-hour weeks, the effort exerted would be 19 years and six months of work - or two lawyers constantly working full time over the entire period the drama has unfolded. If lawyers were builders, the work invested could have seen 40 houses built. If the case was theatre - which at times it has been - then 20 productions could have been staged. Data released through the Official Information Act show that, in addition to the 40,500 hours, the case has cost $3.6 million in airfares, external solicitors' fees, court fees, photocopying and other costs.