When someone first calls O'Connor Family Law, one of the first questions most people ask is: “How much is this divorce going to cost me in attorney fees?”
As a firm that litigates divorces (and the related areas that come along with family law) exclusively, we usually provide the following response (which is very true although very generic): “There’s really no way to know how much your legal fees will be when all is said and done. There are so many things that go into how much work is required. The biggest factor being whether you and your spouse fight about everything or work together to help get this divorce over with. Could be a couple thousand; could be a couple ten thousand dollars; could be more. We have no idea.”
I know - not the answer anyone really wants to hear.
We think that, on average, for a “slightly contested” divorce, the average cost per person is somewhere around $7,500, meaning they go the typical route of the basic pleadings (the complaint and answer), go in for a hearing on temporary orders (to get an order put into place that deals with things such as parenting time, child support, who lives where, and who pays for what), exchange some discovery documentation, attempt to work out an agreement at a four-way meeting (a meeting with both spouses and their attorneys), draft and revise a Separation Agreement (or Divorce Agreement – means the same thing), and then present that in Court to be approved by the Judge.
When you start adding in allegations of abuse, neglect, alcohol, drugs, alienation, or any other such claim, the costs quickly start to climb. When you have someone that is self-employed or works under the table – things are going to be a bit messier (i.e. more expensive). When you have a lot of property or businesses that need to be divided – more time is required, which means costs go up. When your spouse or his/her attorney is being difficult, fees start to rise. When emotions get out of control because of hate, revenge, jealousy, or stubbornness, costs go up.
I believe that the most expensive divorce to date that we have been involved in has been slightly over $100,000. Our least expensive divorce was right around $2200. The $2200 divorce was able to agree upon everything on the day of the hearing for temporary orders and we worked out a full agreement and got them divorced that same day. BOOM! The $100k+ divorce – well, we fought about everything. See how it works?
I jumped on Google and typed in “Average cost of Divorce in Massachusetts.” I found that the answers were from approximately $15,000 - $30,000. In other words, a lot of money. It's also probably better to be prepared for the worst case scenario.
Then, I started thinking.... I jumped back on Google and typed in “Average cost of Wedding in Massachusetts.” Guess what it was??? $39,147! It made me wonder if the cost of your wedding may have any correlation to the cost of your divorce. Maybe not, but perhaps. Just an observation.
But, what I want to do is give you some tips on how you can save money in legal fees, regardless of whether you’re paying $2200 or $100,000. Here you go:
1. Be organized. Discovery (obtaining and producing information from and to the other attorney) can be costly because of the time it takes to go through everything, record it correctly, review it to make sure it’s correct, and then formally putting it all together. It definitely helps if you can get everything that we need and provide it to use in a nice, orderly fashion. We had a client once who handed us three plastic shopping bags of unopen mail. Yes, her legal fees were higher. Don’t do that. Also, when you call or email your attorney, wait until you have enough questions gathered to make the phone call worth it. Most attorneys will charge you for a phone call, even if it only lasts a few minutes. Find out the increments that your attorney charges in and, when you contact them, make sure you’re going to fill up that base time. If your attorney charges in increments of .1 (approximately 6 minutes), it’s not that big a deal, but .2 or higher (12+ minutes) starts really adding up if there are a bunch of 5-minute phone calls or one-lined emails.
2. Don’t contact your attorney too often. This one is a hard one though because there’s often a fine line here. Let me give an example to help clear it up: Daily emails summarizing how much of an ass your husband is and how he was five minutes late and fed the kids chicken nuggets AGAIN; too much communication. ~ Not informing your attorney of the fact your Wife got a DUI with the kids in the car because you don’t want to run up your bill; not enough communication. Your attorney is charging for his or her time, so use it wisely. Do you really need to tell your attorney about the funny thing that happened to you the other day? Probably not. Are you feeling anxiety because you don’t know what the typical procedure in a divorce case and you’re nervous? Call and have a ten-minute conversation that will probably set your mind at ease. Our firm bills on a weekly basis. We’ve had people get nervous and contact us when they haven’t received a bill for a couple weeks in a row – “Did you guys forget about me???” The answer will always be, “No. There’s just nothing to do right now.” If your attorney needs something from you, don’t worry – you’ll know!
3. Respond to your Attorney ASAP. Every client we have has the most important case because, to each and every client, his or her life is the most important thing. However, that doesn’t mean that we are going to always remember every little thing about any given case at any moment. We work our relationships with our clients as a partnership. We draft something and send it to the client to review and edit if necessary. What works best is when you review it and edit it as quickly as possible right after it's sent to you. If you wait a week, your attorney's mind has likely moved on to other cases and then, when we finally get your response back, we have to go back and review what we were initially doing. Time waster.
4. Get your Attorneys the Documents Needed. This becomes a problem most often when the other side has shot out a request for production of documents or Interrogatories (discovery documents that ask you to give them a bunch of documents or answer a bunch of questions). It is WAY cheaper for you to get the documents required to be produced than for us to take the time to get them via subpoenas. There are also deadlines that come along with everything, so return documents to your attorney pronto. If the deadline is approaching and you haven’t done what you’re supposed to, your attorney is going to have to start hunting you down – that takes time and time = $$$. If you don’t do the work necessary to get the documents, your attorney may have to get them, which takes time and time = $$$. Get it?
5. You hate your Spouse. You may have good reason to hate him or her, but if all you do is hate him or her because the relationship is ending, especially where kids are involved, it’s going to have the effect of making your divorce more expensive. I had a case where the Wife said to my client, “I’m not going to agree to anything because I’d rather spend all our money on attorneys then let you walk away with anything.” Yes, that runs up costs and there’s not too much that can be done unless there is a trial and you can go after attorney fees, but never put all your eggs in the basket in the hopes of being awarded attorney fees - it doesn't happen too often.
6. Listen to your Attorney’s Advice. Why do you hire an attorney? To guide you through a divorce in an attempt to obtain an outcome that is favorable to you and fair. You hire an attorney because the attorney knows the law and the procedure. The attorney knows what’s typical in a case or what you can do to strategize and get yourself lined up for a better outcome. We’ve seen more clients mess up their own cases because they refuse to listen to their attorney’s advice. Your attorney isn’t always going to tell you what you want to hear. Unfortunately, sometimes our job consists of telling you that you’re not going to get what you want or that the actions you are taking are putting you in a bad position. If you don’t trust your attorney, get a different attorney. But if you do trust your attorney, you need to listen to him or her and do what they say. They are working for you and telling you to do things that are in your best interest. If you refuse to do what your attorney says, don’t expect them to part the Red Sea or create any miracles later because you’ve screwed things up thinking you could handle it yourself.
7. Accept the fact that Life is going to Change. You’re just not likely going to have the same amount of money available to you as you did while you were married. This means that life is going to have to change a bit. Maybe you cannot eat out as often as you had. Maybe you have to downsize where you live. Maybe you have to pick up daycare expenses because you don’t have two people sharing in caring for the kids to the same extent you did while married. Hanging onto a home that you cannot afford in the long run is just hurting your bottom line. The sooner you accept the fact that life is going to change and begin preparing for that, the better. (Side hint - get a financial planner and tax adviser on board to help you prepare for unmarried life.)
8. Don’t give up when you shouldn’t. Divorce isn’t easy; especially when it’s contentious. Oftentimes, when the other side is being difficult, we hear clients say, “I don’t even care anymore. I just want this done.” At the end of the day, you have a right to end things however you want. And sometimes giving up on something that’s not that important is the right thing to do. However, there are some things you just shouldn’t give up on. Your kids and yourself are the two big ones here. Every action taken throughout a divorce should have a cost-benefit analysis done to determine whether it’s worth it. Is it worth paying your attorney over $300 an hour to argue over some trash barrels? Definitely not. In that instance, give up. Is it worth paying your attorney $2500 to spend a day arguing over the safety of your child? Yes, if you believe it is warranted. But the biggest regret we hear is when a new client comes to us after a divorce is over and says, “I entered this Agreement because I was just tired of fighting and wanted it over.” But they are now screwed into a situation that isn’t good for them and it can sometimes be hard to get out of. The expense in the long run of giving up and finding yourself screwed can oftentimes outweigh the additional expense that comes along with doing it right the first time.
Hopefully you found this helpful! And if you haven’t gotten married yet, hopefully it will help you decide to keep your wedding expenses down . . . just in case there is a correlation. ;)
