An investigating officer in the Rebecca Middleton murder case said the total cost of the trial may rack up to more than $500,000 dollars.

And according to Solicitor General Bill Pearce QC, the stenographer's costs alone will total more than $20,000.

Mr. Pearce said the Attorney General's Chambers had received a $20,000 invoice for the court stenographer's work and another invoice was "yet to come''.

He said the second invoice would not be of the same magnitude as the first, although he declined to give an approximate figure.

The stenographer was flown in at Mr. Pearce's request during the second week of the trial in order to speed along court proceedings and provide an accurate record for the high-profile case.

But Mr. Pearce said the fees for court stenographer -- expected at some point to be implemented regularly in the local court system -- were higher than what would normally be expected because the judge would only need the stenographer's transcripts in the event of a discrepancy.

"One of the reasons the costs went up so high is because the judge wanted unedited transcripts twice daily,'' said Mr. Pearce.

And he said because the judge wanted copies of the full transcripts daily, defence counsel wanted copies as well.

"It got quite pricey, although in a normal court situation it would not ordinarily have cost so much,'' he said.

"But the justice system is costly, generally -- the bigger the case, the bigger the cost,'' he added.

Investigating officer Det. Con. Terry Maxwell said it would be difficult to give an accurate breakdown of trial costs since all the bills had not yet been tallied.

But his guesstimate of half a million dollars took into account the cost of the trial from start to finish, including breakdowns of salaries for members of the Attorney General's chambers.

And the cost of the trial would also include expenses for expert witnesses from abroad including forensic expert Michael Baden and blood expert Henry Lee -- who was a witness in the O.J. Simpson trial.

"If you look at the trial from the outset, you've got to take into account the cost of hotel and airfare for the overseas witnesses and the Middletons, salaries for the Police officers, myself, the judge, the Solicitor General and the court staff,'' he said.

"This was a long trial from its start two-and-a-half years ago. You've got the constant mentions at court, the Privy Counsel appeal -- it piles up to an awful lot of money. But the truth of the matter is that it's not unusual for a Supreme Court case -- especially if it's a murder trial and you've got overseas witnesses -- to be this expensive.

"It's a huge amount of money -- but justice does not come cheap,'' he added.

Justice may have come a bit cheaper for Justis Smith, who was found not guilty of the premeditated murder of the teen.

Although defence lawyer Elizabeth Christopher would not give information about Mr. Smith's legal bill, she said it was below the usual cost since everyone on the defence team underwrote their fees.

"Nobody on the defence -- including John Perry -- charged the full amount because we sincerely believed in our client and we believed he was being treated unfairly,'' she said.