Is there a range for the cost of a lawyer to write a answer for a civil litigation? My bf is saying he has asked around and it's thousands of dollars.

first off, it is not true or correct that your boyfriend cannot write his own answer to the lawsuit; pro se litigants sometimes do. complex appellate work on their own; as long as your boyfriend can figure out how to properly respond by doing the answer and insuring gets properly filed with the court on time, within the statutory 45 days allowed in Wisconsin in a civil lawsuit he should be o.k.        The second part to your question is lawyers are allowed under the limited scope representation rule in Wisconsin, to draft an answer for your boyfriend and for him to pay only for that service. Most attorney's do not like to do that however, as they would want to handle the entire case. One would have to see the lawsuit to determine how complex it is and do a time estimate about how long it might take a particular lawyer to drstt the answer; I would say probably an hour or two of time and expect an average hourly rate of $300 per hour.