Legal Fees

Divorce & Family Law

"Flat Fees, Hourly Fees, and 'a la carte,

how much does it all cost?"

Table of Contents - Legal Fees 

Legal Fees and Divorce Cases:

Your legal fees will be directly dependent upon the litigious nature of your divorce, the complexity of the issues and your spouse's attorney. Your legal fees will be commensurate with those activities that your lawyer has to perform in order to represent your interests. The more litigious your spouse or their lawyer, the more expensive your representation will be. 

In order to help you control expenses, however, you should and can demand that your lawyer keep you informed as to his or her activities.  You should ask for and receive detailed billing statements. We use a special billing program that helps us send out detailed invoices to our clients.  In this manner, our clients are apprised of the what, when, where, and why.  Further, if we feel it is necessary to undertake an activity that we feel will be somewhat expensive we always contact the client for prior approval and send them a confirmation letter.  This helps both the client and the lawyer maintain a professional and informed relationship.

Depending upon your case, you may be able to enter into a number of different types of fee agreements with your lawyer.  These fee arrangements are often referred to as the Flat Fee, 'A La Carte, and Hourly Billing. 

Agreed Divorces and the Flat Rate:

If your case is Agreed, then a flat fee may be appropriate. Agreed means exactly what is says. Parties will agree to resolve their conflict. They will agree to property division and/or custody. The lawyer's role in this case is simply to help the parties draft the appropriate documents and enter the final decree of divorce.

Contested Cases:

In the contested case, the parties cannot or will not agree to property division and/or child custody. It is this type of case in which significant lawyer participation is required. The nature and extent of the legal fees involved will be directly dependant upon a number of factors. These factors may include but are not limited to the goals and aspirations of your spouse, the temperament of your spouse, the other lawyer, the nature and extent of property, and facts surrounding a custody dispute.  Minimum requirements in this type of case are temporary orders and basic discovery.

For the contested case, most lawyers will usually require a retainer fee.  A retainer fee is a deposit for legal services which is placed in the lawyer's trust account.  A trust account is a special bank account in which a client's funds are deposited for safe keeping. The lawyer will then work against the retainer and render to the client an accounting of charges for time and expenses. When the client's trust account reaches a minimum, the client will usually be required to replenish the trust account.

A la Carte fees:

This type of fee arrangement is a mix of both the hourly and flat fee divorce. Like the a la carte menu at a restaurant, the client picks and chooses the services that they want. For example, the lawyer charges a flat fee for the petition, temporary orders, discovery and so forth. As you add an item from the divorce menu, the fees involved will go up. Events such as court appearances and depositions will usually be charged at an hourly rate.

Emergency Relief:

Unfortunately, our society contains members that would do violence to their spouses and children. It is not unusual for the lawyer to get an emergency call from a spouse who has been the victim of abuse. Oftentimes, the other spouse has secreted the child(ren) away. The solution is a series of documents entitled Original Petition for Divorce, Temporary Restraining Order, Protective Order, and if necessary, a writ of Habeas Corpus. When the lawyer gets that call, he or she will have to immediately stop whatever it was that they were doing to address the needs of your case. This type of work will be expensive.

Experience has shown, however, that once your spouse discovers that you are not alone, that the force of law is with you, that officers of the Court and the county have a great deal of attention focused upon them, then they will usually start behaving themselves.

Caveat: