How Much Does Divorce Cost?

 

This is a question without a simple answer because there are many variables, so I'll break them down for you in two categories:  1) costs you are almost certain to incur and 2) optional additional costs (such as hiring an attorney).

Costs You are Almost Certain to Incur

Filing fee for Petition for Dissolution of Marriage:  $230.00 

Filing fee for Response to Petition for Dissolution of Marriage:  $116.00 

Service of Process by Sheriff:  $35.00

Mediation ($75/hour, two-hour minimum requirement):  $150.00 

That's it.  #Divorce is inexpensive.  It's the fighting that costs so much.  

Here are the optional costs you might incur based on how much you and the ex engage in litigation.

Optional Additional Costs*

Attorney fees:  Variable but at least $5,000 for initial retainer and likely over $20,000 in total.

    Attorneys charge by the hour in .10-hour increments, meaning if you hire an attorney at $300/hour, a 6-minute phone call will cost you $30.  This adds up quickly depending on how much you use the attorney. Attorneys can't quote flat fees because they'd inevitably lose money.  Charging by the hour incentivizes people to settle their cases (when funds run low).  

    Attorneys charge around $300 an hour on average.  Associate attorneys (the less experienced ones at the firm) charge less than partners, usually $200 per hour.  Paralegals charge less than associates, usually about $150 per hour.  Make sure you ask for the costs of all those who will touch your case and pay attention to who is doing the bulk of the work (ensure attorneys are delegating less specialized tasks to support staff or paralegals).  Also, note that many attorneys increase their rate for their "trial fee."

    Most firms have you start with a $5,000 retainer, and it is almost certain you'll end up replenishing this before you get to mediation.  You've probably already found that if you Google "how much does divorce cost" you'll get several figures that various websites tell you are the average.  That number means nothing to you because your case is unique.  I have seen cases where clients did not spend their entire initial $5,000 retainer, and others where parties spent well over $100,000.    

    While you cannot control how much your ex will fight (thus potentially causing you to incur more costs), you can control how much you engage in the fight and how often you contact your attorney team.  

    My advice:  

1. Keep emails and calls to your attorney to a minimum.   
2. Choose your battles with the ex and accept that you cannot win on every issue.
3. Discuss your reasonably ideal budget with your attorney and gauge the attorney's reaction.  Don't be afraid to ask the attorney for their best estimate of your total costs based on what they know about your case at the beginning.
4. Look into unbundled services (limited representation), which can help keep costs lower because you utilize the attorney's services only where needed and you do much of the foot work yourself. 

Experts:   

• Child and Family Investigator:  $3,250.  This cost is capped at $2,750 plus $500 trial fee.  Some CFIs charge more than the cap by getting parties to agree in a contract to the higher fees.  If costs are a concern, find a CFI that sticks to the cap.
• Parental Responsibilities Evaluator:  $20,000.  This is an expert who, like a CFI, makes recommendations to the court regarding parenting time but is also able to conduct mental health evaluations.
• Substance Abuse Evaluator:  $5,000.  This expert determines whether one spouse abuses substances.
• Real Estate Appraiser:  $500.  You can avoid this cost if you agree to sell the house and split the proceeds 50/50, or stipulate to the Zillow valuation.
• Vocational Evaluator:.  $6,000.  This expert comes in to play when one spouse argues the other spouse is capable of earning more money.
• Business Valuation Expert:  This expert values businesses owned by a spouse.
• Private Mediator:  $7,000.  Many attorneys prefer private mediators to the court mediators, and they do tend to get cases resolved more often.  Private mediators charge $300 per hour and up, and these mediations may go all day and into the evening.  Private mediators make themselves available to continue negotiations after the mediation session in cases where parties are close to resolution, and continue to charge by the hour for their time.
• Private Process Server:  $200.  If your ex avoids service of process you may end up spending money just to track him down or stake out their home.  
• Private Judge:  $30,000.  Some parties opt to hire a private judge (who is a retired judge working privately) rather than stay with the judge in which their case was assigned.  This may be because they don't like the judge they were assigned to or they want to take the case to trial sooner.  This judge shopping is a luxury most cannot afford.  Private judges charge around $400 per hour and will want to manage the case during litigation and review documents in advance of trial so you're paying more than just a trial fee.

E-filing fees:  $500

    If you opt to e-file or hire an attorney, you will be paying a $12.00 submission fee for every document e-filed in addition to the court filing fees attached to the document type.  Attorneys are required to e-file so you do not have the option of directing them not to.  

Copies and Postage:  $1,000

    While these costs may seem nominal, they add up quickly, especially in times of trial preparation when attorneys are required to bring four exhibit notebooks to Court full of hundreds of pages of exhibits.  At $0.20 a page, this cost can sneak up on you.  You must serve the other party with every document you file with the Court, and submit disclosures to the other party, so postage can add up quickly too.

Therapy:  $5,000

    Many parties to divorce find themselves needing professional mental help to get through this process.  You may end up putting your children in therapy to help them cope with the divorce as well.

Witness fees:  $30.00.  

    When you subpoena a witness to court, you have to pay their mileage cost for the miles they must drive to and from the courthouse, and send the check with the subpoena.

This list is not all-inclusive and there could be other fees that apply to your case that are not listed here.  This is a list of the most likely fees and costs you could incur in a divorce.

It is not surprising that with all these costs, 75% of family law cases every year in Colorado are filed by self-represented parties.  Whether you go it alone or hire an attorney, be sure to order Family Law Boot Camp to help you understand the process every step of the way.  

*All costs quoted are estimates and are not guaranteed to be the cost you are quoted.

Integrity in the Legal Profession- What to Look For In a Lawyer.

Warren Buffet says integrity is the most important trait to hire for.  Ref:  https://www.inc.com/marcel-schwantes/first-90-days-warren-buffetts-advice-for-hiring-based-on-3-traits.html.  The same holds true when hiring a lawyer.  You want a lawyer you can trust, not only to get you a favorable result (which no lawyer can guarantee), but who will be honest with you about the direction of your case. Using Warren Buffet’s 12-question analysis, here are the things you should look for in an attorney.

1. Attorneys should tailor advice to your specific case.  Attorneys draw on their experiences, but should be learning from them, whether good or bad, so that they can tailor advice to your unique set of facts, rather than treating you like another cog in the wheel.

2. Attorneys should not be afraid to be challenged.  They should be able to respond to questions with professionalism and confidence.

3. An attorney should respect the judges, but not fear them.  An attorney should respect the law, but not be afraid to argue a different interpretation of law.  Bad court decisions must be challenged if they are to be overruled. The first attorney to challenge Plessy v. Ferguson was most likely considered a nuisance by the judge, but his efforts eventually led to Brown v. Board of Education.

4. An attorney should not “break the rules.”  Especially the ethics rules that guide our profession.  Attorneys should practice with professionalism, which means respect of others and of rules, which are designed to protect our clients.

5. An attorney should never advise you to do anything illegal or unethical. 

6. An attorney should maintain confidentiality of your conversations, but only to an extent.  What you tell an attorney is confidential, but if you express an intent to do something illegal or harmful, the attorney is permitted to report it.

7. Sometimes tension between attorneys in cases occurs.  Your attorney should handle that tension with professionalism, maturity, and class.  A war of words may only end up costing you money.

8. Your attorney should keep you updated on every aspect of your case, return calls timely, and respond to emails timely.  She should be honest with you about your prospects for success, the weaknesses in your case, and advise you on what you can do that [you have control over] to increase your chances of success in your case.  An hourly-fee attorney should send you invoices regularly so you can see what is being worked on and how your money is being spent.

9. Your attorney should be honest with you, advise you on what she believes is a fair outcome (as well as the extreme possible outcomes), explain things in terms you can understand, and answer your questions.

10. Your attorney should never be willing to lie to anyone for you.  They can be disbarred for this, and you will pay the price.  You want an attorney who is honest to the judiciary.  This does not mean that attorney will disclose your confidential communications, but do not trust an attorney who is willing to misrepresent something to the court or advises you to hide evidence.

11. Look at attorney reviews for signs of integrity, and be sure to read between the lines of bad reviews.  Bad reviews may be written anonymously by people who were never even clients (or even former opposing parties) just to harm that attorney’s reputation.

12. Read an attorney’s peer reviews as well.  Is that person respected in the legal community?  If not, this could be a sign of a lack of integrity.

For more information on what to look for in an attorney, check out Family Law Boot Camp.

Aggressive representation

We've all seen the commercials of attorneys bragging to be the Strong Arm of the Law or the Bulldog.  There are YouTube videos of corny commercials the nation over of attorneys practically chanting while wearing their war paint about how they'll fight to the death for you. Which raises the question, should you be looking for an aggressive attorney?

Maybe.

You should be looking for someone who CAN be aggressive, IF the need arises.  To that point, you should be looking for an attorney who tailors her approach to your unique situation. 

Not every case should be approached aggressively.  It may make more strategic sense to approach your case congenially, in order to make the other party look like an unreasonable bully.  Often times, opposing lawyers get along with each other, which tends to increase your chances at settling and thus saving money.

On the other hand, there are times when the other party is being SO unreasonable, an aggressive offense makes the most sense.  It may intimidate the other side into a more reasonable position, or drive up that person's attorney fees to the point they can't afford to keep fighting.

Question your attorney's approach and ensure that it makes the most sense for your set of facts.  You may dislike your ex (to put it mildly) but that doesn't mean being out for blood will work well for what your goals are.

How Do I Choose a Family Lawyer?

This question must be answered by first determining your goals for the case. 

If your goal is to fight your face off and money is no object, pick an expensive, litigious lawyer.  If your goal is to divide things pretty fairly and not spend a lot of money, find a lawyer who advertises being more client-centric, and is more settlement minded.  If your goal is to fight your face off but you don’t want to pay lawyer a lot, start practicing witchcraft because that isn’t going to happen without a little black magic, a sacrificial goat, and the bottled tears of children.

That’s pretty much it.  The more litigious your case (meaning, the more you fight), the more expensive it will be.  Trial is expensive because it takes so much time to prepare for, plus you’re paying the lawyer for all that time out of the office.  In addition to trial, you may be paying the lawyer to conduct expensive discovery.  Lawyers make their money by billing you for their time working on your case.  So, the more time they work on your case, the more it will cost you.  And we work off retainers, which means you pay in advance, so there is typically no getting around paying the bill.

So, back to the original question:  How do I choose a family lawyer?  Quite simply, figure out what your goals are, meet with a few lawyers, and see how they respond to your stated goals.  In addition, make sure they promise the following:

• Good communication (you should know what is going on in your case at all times)
• Timely responses to emails and phone calls (this doesn’t mean same day, but two weeks is too long, and not at all is unacceptable) 
• Collaboration (it’s your case – you should be involved in the substantive decisions)
• Ethics.  I realize this defies ever lawyer joke.  And if you’re the client looking for a litigious lawyer, this defies logic.  But trust me on this one.  Unethical lawyers make bad case decisions, which will hurt you.  

If they don’t promise these things (and especially if they don’t follow through after you’ve hired them), find a new lawyer.

Lastly, like any relationship, chemistry is important.  Find a lawyer you like!  Not just one you can stand.

Alisha

If I’m getting divorce because my spouse cheated, can I make him/her pay my attorney fees?

Short Answer:  Maybe, but not because of the cheating.

Explanation:  This is really two questions; not one. 

The first questions is essentially, “if my spouse cheated, will the court take that into consideration for any reason whatsoever?”  The answer is no.  Colorado is a no-fault divorce state, which means the court is prohibited from taking into consideration any fault on behalf of one of the spouses in deciding issues like attorney fees, property division and alimony. 

The second question is essentially, “can I get the court to order my soon-to-be-ex (“STBE”) pay my attorney fees?”  The answer is maybe.  In a divorce, you can ask the court to consider the financial resources of you and your STBE, and order your STBE pay a reasonable amount of your attorney fees if there is a disparity in your two incomes.  The purpose of an award of attorney fees is to equalize the parties’ financial positions.  For example, if your STBE earns $100,000.00 per year and you are a stay-at-home-parent earning little to no income, the court may order your ex to pay your attorney fees.  Keep in mind, the court will only order this typically at the end of your case, so you need to cover the costs up front and hope the court awards you attorney fees in the end. 

Additionally, just because there may be a large disparity in your two incomes, the court will not necessarily order attorney fees to be paid.  Judges may decline to do so for any number of reasons.  For example, the judge may believe you are responsible for dragging the divorce out, and therefore should not be rewarded with attorney fees.  Whether or not this is true is irrelevant.  The awarding of attorney fees is completely up to your judge’s discretion.  If the judge believes it is fair that each party pay their own attorney fees, that is the ruling and you’re outta luck.  Bottom line:  Don’t go through your divorce assuming you will get attorney fees in the end.  Like the rest of your divorce case, there is no guarantee.

To find out whether you might qualify for an award of attorney fees, contact Alisha Taibo through www.taibolaw.com or at (303) 653-2509.