Questions You Want Answered > General Family Law Information > How much will my divorce cost?
I really wish we could answer that question with any degree of certainty. The cost depends on a lot of factors: how reasonable are you and your spouse; how reasonable is the other attorney; how much do you help us help you; how prepared you are at each stage of the process. Some of the cost you can control and some you cannot. If you are an educated consumer and willing to put some effort into your case, you can save money.
If your attorney is charging you by the hour, here are some rules of thumb to know. A day of trial is 6 hours of attorney time. For each day of trial, an attorney needs 2-3 days to prepare, and those days are at least 6 hours each. That is on top of client phone calls and meetings, and generating letters, discovery and settlement proposals. In fact, for any court appearance or deposition, there is preparation time which is at least equal to the amount of time spent in court or at deposition, and usually it is more than that. We charge you to wait at court, unless we can find a way to do work for another client instead. Some attorneys charge for their travel time.
For a more in depth discussion about attorneys fees in your divorce, see my blog posts on How Much Will My Divorce Cost at https://familylaw-lifeinthetrenches.blogspot.com/:
https://familylaw-lifeinthetrenches.blogspot.com/2018/07/how-much-will-my-divorce-cost-part-one.html
https://familylaw-lifeinthetrenches.blogspot.com/2018/08/how-much-will-my-divorce-cost-part-two.html
Last updated on August 25, 2018 by Karen Robbins, Attorney at Law