While the horrific oil spill by the Exxon Valdez happened all the way back in 1989 (yes that was 19 years ago!), Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) is still in litigation over how much it should be forced to pay in damages.

Last month, Exxon Mobil won a big victory when the Supreme Court (in a 5-3 decision) lowered the company's punitive damages from $2.5 billion all the way down to $507.5 million. While this was good news for Exxon Mobil, there was one little detail left to work out -- interest on all that money. Of course, Exxon Mobil does not want to pay that interest, and today the Supreme Court decided that a lower court needs to make this decision.

So just how much interest are we talking about here? Roughly $500 million and counting, as Exxon announced earlier that the victims of the oil spill have requested $488 million in interest. This works out to about $15,000 per victim.

What does this amount mean to Exxon? Ten hours of sales. That's right, ten hours. You would think the company would just pay the money and be done with the whole mess, but Exxon will continue to fight and will have its day in the lower court of appeals.

This week, I looked over the financials of a struggling business (essentially, the slowing economy is taking a toll). I was seeing if I could find some ways to cut costs.

Looking through the line items, I noticed some large legal bills. And, digging some more, I learned that the company was using a big-time law firm.

"You really don't need this kind of level of legal services," I said. "Besides, you can shop around for an attorney."

I also had some other suggestions:

DIY (Do-It-Yourself) Legal: You can gather your own legal advice for free. Just doing a routine Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) search, you'll notice many legal websites. However, you need to be wary. Do you know the quality of the content?

I think a better approach is to focus on well-established sources like:

• AllBusiness.com: The site is chock full of helpful content and is backed by Dun & Bradstreet (NYSE: DNB).
• U.S. Legal Forms: You'll find thousands of vetted legal forms (at affordable prices).
• Nolo: Founded in the early 1970s, this company is now the premier publisher of self-help legal guides (and I've bought quite a few books from them).

Affordable Service Providers: If a DIY approach seems scary, there is a middle ground. There are online services that help with such things as incorporations, trademarks, copyrights, and even patents.

The top player in the sector is LegalZoom. Actually, I recently had a chance to visit the headquarters, which has an impressive setup. In a way, it's an efficient supply chain – with a call center, experts, proofreaders and so on that process legal documents.

More importantly, you'll only be spending a fraction of what a big-time attorney will charge you.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook (www.mergerbook.com) and is also a principal in Averiware, which provides an ERP system to small and midsize businesses.

U.S. lawmakers are going to get their chance today to ask executives from five of the world's largest oil companies what their take is on current gasoline prices.

Executives from the top three American oil companies -- Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM), Chevron (NYSE: CVX) and ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) -- will be present at today's hearing, as well as executives from BP (NYSE: BP) and Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS.A). While the executives are predictably going to blame the current high gasoline prices on surging oil, it will still be interesting to see just how hard lawmakers hit the executives.

For the executives, it can't be a good feeling to be walking into today's hearing. The hearing is being called "Drilling for Answers: Oil Company Profits, Runaway Prices and the Pursuit of Alternatives." The hearings will be chaired by Rep. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, who in the past has been a vocal critic of the oil industry.

Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) lost a patent ruling against rival Broadcom (NASDAQ: BRCM). That was some time ago. It prevents Qualcomm from selling certain chips in the US. That hurts its profits and makes its handset partners very unhappy.

Things got worse for the wireless chip company. An appeals court turned down its request to temporarily start selling the chips again. According to The Wall Street Journal, "The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, without providing details, ruled Tuesday that Qualcomm had not met its burden of proof to win a stay pending appeal of the injunction."

Qualcomm's bad patent habits have it in court cases against its largest customer, Nokia (NYSE: NOK), as well as Broadcom. That creates a nightmare for shareholders.

Although handset sales may be slowing a bit. Qualcomm has a wonderful business providing chips and software to the industry. That franchise took its stock from $15 less than five years ago to $53 in mid-2006. Disputes with customers and rivals have helped push that share price down to under $38.

With the new court ruling,Qualcom's share price is likely to stay down a lot longer.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.