How much should the Legal Fees for a Divorce be?

It is bad enough financially and emotionally when we go through a divorce. So does it not make sense to try and keep our legal fees at a reasonable level. Here are a few tips to lessen the financial burdens of a divorce.

There are two basic things a lawyer can charge for:

Their time spent on the file or the lawyer's fee;
The expenses incurred on the file or the disbursements.

Expenses

For any divorce the expenses are going to be pretty basic:

The Court filing fee of $210.00.
The marriage certificate of $20.00.
The cost of serving the papers if your spouse doesn't go to a lawyer's office to pick up the papers: $50.00.
The fees of any experts such as mediators, psychologists, and accountants.

The lawyer's fee

You have probably heard lawyers talk about their hourly billing rate. Basically for each hour or portion of an hour that your lawyer works on the file they will bill you for that time. So if a lawyer's billing rate is $200.00 per hour and they spend 2.5 hours on your file then the fee is $500.00. So a simple letter that takes your lawyer 12 minutes to deal with is worth $40.00 on your bill.

Another way that lawyers can bill you is a set fee based on doing a certain amount of work and if the work on the file is fairly routine. You have probably seen lawyers quote fees for an uncontested divorce at a certain amount of fees for example.

Unfortunately most divorces do not fall under the routine example. This doesn't mean that these are difficult divorces, it just that most divorces have a number of issues to be resolved.

So if your lawyer bills the file on his hourly rate, the more time he spends on the file, the more money he makes. It's that simple. Every letter, every telephone conversation, every court application, costs you money. So take a close look at every time you instruct your lawyer to do something on a file, because it is money directly out of your pocket. In short the longer it takes for you and your spouse to resolve things the more money the lawyers make.

It is therefore up to you, the client, to be aware of the fact that spending extra dollars on a file may not be worth it. The only person that will end up getting rich on the file is your lawyer. It is hard in the heat of the moment to realize this.

So what can you do to keep the costs of your divorce reasonable.

Prepare a list of all your assets and at least get your spouse to agree on a value of the assets, even if you can't agree on the division of the assets.

Agree on the division of your personal goods. A couple of lawyers arguing over who gets the everyday plates, makes no sense at all. All it would take is each lawyer at $175.00 per hour and after one hour, one spouse could get a new set and probably better set of plates.
Set aside your differences and focus on the needs of your children and try and come up with a parenting plan. Ask yourself how can I make this divorce easier on our children.
Ask your lawyer how much things are going to cost and ask your lawyer to explain the process and the necessity of each step. Don't assume that your lawyer needs to take every step they do. Going to court is fine, but be aware that each time your lawyer takes something to court probably costs you $800.00.
Don't automatically assume that your spouse hates you to the core. If they want out of the relationship and have already gone to see a lawyer, there is unfortunately little you can do to bring them back. If they are psychologically prepared to leave, you are probably never going to get them back. Look to the future and focus on what you can do to get over the divorce as quickly as possible.
Talk to your spouse about hiring a lawyer that is not going to make matters worse. If you and your spouse are both going to go to reasonable lawyers who are willing to work matters out, then both of you are going to come out ahead. There is very little your lawyer can do to keep down costs, once the battle has been joined.

Finally make use of mediation. You will say I can't stand to be in the same room as my spouse. Of course you can't, that is why you are getting divorced. But if you knew that mediation might save you thousands of dollars in legal expenses, would you not consider it worth it? Also the mediator is not going to let your spouse walk all over you. Finally if you take things the normal way through the courts you are going to have to be in the same room as your spouse as the divorce progresses and be grilled by your spouse's lawyer to boot. If you still can't stand the thought of seeing your spouse, then your spouse can be in a separate office and mediation can be done on a caucusing basis with the mediator shuttling back and forth between the two offices.

It doesn't take long to figure out that two lawyers billing a file at $175.00 per hour and spending only five hours each on a file equals $875.00 per lawyer. Now take this same situation and use a mediator billing $150.00 per hour. This only equals $750.00 or $375.00 each. If you can use a mediator to resolve most of your issues and use your lawyers to draw up the agreement you and your spouse agreed upon, you would cut the costs of your divorce significantly and maybe just have enough money to get on with your life.

Now granted there are some divorces where the other spouse is a jerk and the full weight of the law needs to be brought down on them. However these cases are the exception and not the norm. Most divorces if handled correctly need not be difficult. Further isn't the true measure of your lawyer, whether he tames the fire that is your divorce and turns your spouse into a pussycat. A lawyer who makes your spouse willing, to be a good parent, pay child support when he or she has to, pay spousal support if needed and fairly divide up your assets, is worth their weight in gold.

If somebody is pushed into a corner they are going to fight. If your lawyer pushes your spouse into a corner with no room to negotiate they are going to fight as well. You will then see your legal fees escalate. Your divorce will go on interminably and your life will be hijacked by an even more painful experience than it has to be. Don't assume that a tough lawyer is the best lawyer for your case. A lawyer who figures out a way to get what you want with minimal cost and gets your spouse to buy into the agreement is far less painful and costly.

So before you tell your lawyer, I want you to fight for me, or a want you to take my spouse to the cleaners, think twice. It is only going to cost you money and lengthen your divorce. Save your strength and money for what matters in your life, you and your children. Guess what else, your children will thank-you for it.

Good Luck!