5 Hints for Avoiding a Huge Divorce Bill
Divorce is not easy at the best of times. But it can be especially difficult when enormous legal bills add to the usual stress and strain. Here are some tips we recommend that you consider to keep your legal bills manageable.
1. Can you manage your divorce without a lawyer at all? If you understand the legal consequences and don’t need legal advice, then it may be that you can represent yourself in getting your divorce. But instead of trying to do everything entirely by yourself, there are two fairly cheap sources of help you can turn to.
In most cases spouses are able to work out the terms of their divorce without needing to ask a judge to actually decide anything. These are called uncontested divorces. They still involve a lot of necessary paperwork and court office staff are not able to do it for you or give you detailed help. Some are not even allowed to give you all the forms. But there are other options.
One is a do-it-yourself divorce kit. You can buy one of these for about $30 at most bookstores or office supply stores. They give you the basic information you need along with the blank forms you will need to fill out. It will still take some time to read through and figure out what they are telling you to do, but it has the advantage of being the cheapest possible option.
A second way to go is to hire an online service that will take your information, prepare your forms, and email them to you along with specific instructions allowing you to file them at the court office yourself. For a couple of hundred bucks this is far easier than the do-it-yourself-kit and still saves loads of money compared to hiring a lawyer to do it all for you.
2. Try mediating instead of litigating. If you are among the 10% or so who have not been able to agree with your spouse on the terms of your divorce, before your lawyers start scrapping, hire a mediator. A mediator is a specialist in assisted negotiation who will help you and your spouse come to an agreement on those touchy issues that you have not been able to resolve on your own. Mediation is successful in resolving the majority of disputes and can change your divorce from a courtroom contest into a far less expensive paper shuffle.
Mediation is going to cost you a few thousand dollars so you have to keep the alternative in mind. Sure, if you and your spouse can settle matters without a mediator then that is the way to go. But if the alternative is a court room battle, you will both by out tens of thousands of dollars. If you can spend a couple of thousand and avoid this through mediation then the choice is obvious.
3. If you need legal advice see how much of it you can get for free by taking advantage of the common 30 minute free consultation. Be sure to ask if the lawyer offers these freebies before you make an appointment. They are common enough that if you call around you should be able to find someone who will talk to you for a while for free.
4. Understand how a lawyer’s bill is calculated. If the hourly rate is $200 then for every message you leave or brief conversation you have you will be billed at least $20. Each time you are tempted to call your lawyer and ask how things are progressing, take out a $20 bill and say goodbye to it – you might reconsider. A better idea is to arrange at the beginning to have copies of all letters written or received by your lawyer forwarded to you. You will still be billed for these copies, but they will let you keep tabs on what is happening with your file without incurring any more fees than necessary.
5. If possible you might try to arrange to pay a flat fee for some or all of your lawyer’s services rather than paying by the hour. Most won’t agree, but if your lawyer will, it will relieve both of you from the concern over billing and let you place all your attention on getting results. This is also an excellent motivator for your lawyer to get the whole case finished as quickly and easily as possible.
About the Author:
Visit the author’s site at Divorce Canada as an example of a divorce document assembly service mentioned in this article. This location also provides over a hundred pages packed with helpful information.
