In most instances, land claim cases often proved simply too expensive for most Californios to litigate. While the majority of cases were ultimately ruled in favor of the Californios, the average wait-time for a case to be resolved was seventeen years. During that time, most Californio families were forced to sell portions of their property to pay their attorneys' fees. In addition, all land commission hearings were held in San Francisco, which created an additional and expensive barrier for Southern California landowners. Mexican American landowners, in general, faced often insurmountable odds in proving ownership of their lands, which some argue was the intent of the convoluted system. Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo wrote, "It requires a lot of work and money that I don’t have to locate witnesses, and afterwards to pay for notarized affidavits and English translations for each."