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Keeping Divorce Costs Reasonably Low

Published on January 24th, 2023

Family Law Lawyers

If you and your spouse have recently decided to divorce, you’re likely grappling with significant stress concerning how you’ll manage financially for a time. Dividing a single household into two separate households is not a cheap undertaking. Yet, there are ways to keep your costs lower than they would otherwise be.

For example, you can potentially keep your legal costs lower by keeping one simple reality in mind: You are in control of your own divorce process. Meaning, you can choose when to fight, when to compromise, when to push, and when to pull back.

Fighting for a specific asset, a certain child custody arrangement, etc. is not always a bad idea. You shouldn’t sacrifice your long-term wellbeing for short-term gains. However, it is important to keep in mind that every time you dig your heels in, your legal costs are going to go up. When your lawyer needs to work to help you achieve your goals, they’ll need to be reimbursed for those hours. If you and your spouse can resolve most of your differences without significant assistance, your legal costs will go down accordingly.

If Your Divorce Is Likely to Remain Amicable

As an experienced divorce lawyer – including those who practice at Felt Family Law & Mediation – can explain, most lawyers work via a billable hours system. This means that, for all but the most straightforward, cut-and-dry cases, they won’t be offering a flat fee for their work. As a result, you can keep your legal costs lower if you and your spouse are in a position to work out many of your differences without assistance.

Many couples find that they’re able to present their attorneys with a “blueprint” of the terms they’d like to have finalized. Then, all their attorneys will need to do is review those terms to ensure that they are in their client’s interests, file appropriate paperwork with the court, and ensure that the matter is properly formalized. This will cost you much less than a traditional courtroom “battle” would.

With that said, if you and your spouse still need assistance working things through but want to avoid judicial intervention, you can keep your costs relatively low by engaging in mediation and/or attorney-led negotiation. Battling things out in court tends to be the most effective way to drive up your legal costs.

If Your Divorce Is Likely to Become Contentious

On the other hand, if you have a goal that is worth fighting for, if your spouse simply will not negotiate, or if there is a history of abuse or intimidation in your marriage, you may need to go to court. In this scenario, you will, again, simply need to remember that only you can know the value of pushing and fighting now to achieve long-term happiness and wellbeing. If you have questions about how to keep your costs low while doing everything you need to in order to achieve an end worth fighting for, don’t hesitate to express your concerns to your lawyer so that they can provide you with informed feedback.

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