It has been said that there are no right answers to the wrong questions, so the first step in making your divorce process work for you financially is to ask the right questions. This article will outline a few of the most important financial questions when hiring a divorce attorney.
1. What is the structure of the fee agreement?
Your lawyer should have you sign a fee agreement that lays out how you will be billed. Understanding this agreement is extremely important.
▪ Ask about the retainer. The retainer is like a down payment that you pay up front, and it will be used to cover the fees as your case progresses.
▪ Ask whether you will be billed hourly or flat fee. If you are billed hourly, then you will obviously be billed for the attorney’s time, but what isn’t obvious is how this can add up and how you can work with your attorney to keep costs down.
▪ Ask about who will work on your case, and how you will be billed for each attorney or staff member’s time. Find out how much you will billed for the paralegal or other support staff. If you want only a particular person or group to work on your case, you need to put that into the agreement because otherwise the default is that firms may utilize various people to work on your case and you may be paying to re-educate one attorney about issues another one has covered.
2. What kind of cost estimates can be anticipated?
Your attorney will very likely be unwilling to get pinned down to a definitive cost estimate of the overall divorce because your ex-spouse is a wild card that can lead to lower or higher costs depending on what they decide to do. However, if you push for specific answers to smaller questions, you may be able to get a reasonable understanding of the costs that will be involved.
▪ Does your attorney anticipate fees from any other professionals? What are the typical ranges for these people– i.e. counselors, investigators, accountants, appraisers, etc?
▪ What has been your attorney’s experience in terms of costs in prior cases that he or she has handled? For example, you can ask about cases where the spouse was cooperative and where the spouse was uncooperative, where custody was an issue, where certain types of assets were involved, etc.
3. How can I keep costs down?
You are the person who will be in touch with your attorney the most. Find out your attorney’s preferences and how to save his or her time.
▪ Find out whether your attorney feels that it will be more cost effective to communicate with him or her via email, text, calls or in person. Focus on the most cost-effective ways of working together.
▪ Find out what kind of document organizations works best for your attorney. If you make sure that any documentary evidence you have is assembled and summarized in an organized manner then you will save your attorney time and therefore save yourself money.
▪ Are there things you can do yourself to save attorney time? You may want to find out if there are tasks relating to your case that your attorney can delegate to you to save on cost. Your attorney may have staff set up to do non-legal tasks, but it never hurts to ask whether there are things you can do to keep costs down.
You can expect that your divorce will have a significant financial effect on you, your ex-spouse, and your children. Don’t be afraid to ask questions about the process and educate yourself on how you will be billed, what you can anticipate, and how you can minimize the impact to your financial bottom line.
