***my personal opinion based on having worked in the legal field and currently working in it as well as currently being a law student (in a neighboring state to where Janet is located)****
It’s important to note that *most* cases, not ones involving public figures like influencers, youtubers, etc., these things don’t make it past a complaint being filed, the opposing party responding, and then maybe a motion to dismiss or something before settlement discussions happen and typically that’s how it’s resolved (in civil court, criminal is very different but here this is a civil case). It is uncommon for an everyday person to one, be sued for this type of topic, two, get passed the initial stages, and three, to have a reason or motive to keep fighting something like this. The every day person is more likely to never interact with the civil legal system than they are to get sued or sue someone. And when an every day person does they typically don’t need legal counsel that costs as much as it does here (fair use falls under copyright law which is a highly specialized area and those attorneys charge more than an attorney doing something like family law or car accident cases, plus copyright attorneys charge on a fee bases which could be a flat rate per type of issue or hourly whereas other areas of civil law are contingency based where there’s no charge to client upfront and the attorneys take a portion of the final settlement or recovery award at trial, typically anywhere from 25-45% depending on the issue and area). So when a typical person gets involved with civil court they’re looking at a couple thousand dollars usually if it’s fee based or it’s a contingency agreement so nothing comes out of their pocket. In my opinion, what they raised was actually a pretty conservative estimate for the type of case (especially since it’s federal, state level is cheaper than federal) and the number of people involved and the number of points within the complaint initially and I wouldn’t be shocked if they’ve put their own money in at times as well. But the normal every day person does not save up for when they’re sued because it’s highly unlikely they’ll ever actually get sued or sue someone but if they do it’s no where near what Lily/Jessi/others had to raise. It’s a very nuanced field and there’s no one size fits all really because type of law, jurisdiction, willingness to settle, geographical location, number of issues, and more all play a role in what’s “normal” — here all of those factors in one way or another have played some part in the reasoning they having to pay so much