How can you mitigate the cost of your divorce?
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Divorce proceedings can be quite lengthy and costly. It could end up becoming a financial burden depending on your source of income. The average direct cost of a contested divorce ranges from $15,000 to $30,000 depending on your case. On top of these direct costs, some other costs to consider may include obtaining financial advice, legal fees, therapy if needed, etc.
With so many costs to consider in a divorce, here are some tips on how you can mitigate a financial fallout from your divorce.
Do not choose litigation as your first option.
Adopt litigation in your divorce proceedings only as a last resort! Litigation is expensive and painful and usually used only in cases where parties can’t seem to agree on certain terms no matter how hard they negotiate. We would advise you to try out other methods of settling your divorce such as mediation, collaborative divorce, settlement conferences, etc. If all else fails, then we would suggest for our clients to try litigation.
The exception to this is when the other party is high conflict or has narcissistic personality traits. In these cases, we suggest if you are going to try to settle, to put a time limit on those efforts before turning to litigation. Often in these cases, the other party will use mediation or settlement negotiations to stall the process with no intention of ever coming to a resolution.
List items that you and your spouse are agreeable on, and work from there.
Especially if you have children involved, you have to prioritize and consider their needs. It will be great if you and your spouse can come to terms and agree on things like child custody (joint/single), living arrangements, alimony, etc., beforehand, and list them down. The lesser things there are to dispute, the shorter the case will drag on and the faster a mutual agreement can be reached. Other items that you should try to agree on, and list down include splitting of assets, finances, insurance, etc.
Divide household items on your own and remember what your lawyer is here for.
You likely have tons of items to split amongst yourself. Discuss amongst yourself and figure out who gets what before engaging a lawyer to settle your divorce. A lawyer’s services do not exist to help you divide up your furniture, and household items. Moreover, if you are going to treat your lawyer like a therapist to help you through the emotional aspect of the divorce, it is much cheaper to engage a therapist instead.
Keep your financial records and documents well organized.
You will probably need to submit many documents to your lawyer, so keep all the information you may need well filed or documented electronically to save you and your lawyer time. If you can constantly maintain well organized and keep your banking and financial records in a folder according to chronological order, it will save you a lot of money in the long run.
Additionally, show up to meetings prepared with all the relevant documents required or email copies over to your lawyer beforehand. Electronic documents are generally preferred as paper documents cost more to process internally. This will significantly reduce the meeting times with your lawyer and ultimately lead to lower fees.
Disclose all your assets honestly.
Even without mentioning this, it is a given. Honesty is best policy in a divorce proceeding. You do not want to hide something and affect your position in the case later on. Hence, when it comes to disclosing your assets, come clean the first moment your lawyer asks. You might end up regretting it if you hide any assets.
If the case is brought to court and the court finds out about the deception, it will definitely hurt your case. There is also a possibility of having penalties imposed on you or being charged with a crime, depending on the judge’s discretion.
Respond to your lawyer promptly.
Ensure that you are always easily accessible via phone, email, physical meetings, etc. You don’t want your lawyer to charge you extra just because you are constantly uncontactable. Respond promptly, or as quickly as you can when your lawyer asks you for information or needs to speak with you. Make them your priority.
If you need to be reached multiple times before your lawyer actually obtains the documents and information they need, it will lengthen the lead times of your case, and add onto your legal fees. Don’t you want your case to proceed as smoothly and quickly as possible? By helping your lawyer, you are helping yourself save costs too!
We hope these tips have been helpful in guiding you through your divorce proceedings and planning process. Depending on your current relationship with your spouse, you may or may not be able to arrive at an agreeable compromise together. However, all of our lawyers here at Joleena Louis Law, will put forth their best to help you through and achieve your best interests within affordable means.
If you would like to schedule a consultation you can contact us via this form here.
