Anyone who has had to retain an attorney for their divorce knows how expensive it can be. You can plan on putting down at least a $5,000 deposit and then continue paying as your divorce continues on.
Your attorney will most likely bill you by the hour, with fees ranging from $250 to $500 per hour, or even more than that if you live in an expensive area. They will bill you for every single thing they do on your file:
- Read an email from you
- Type out an email response to you (no matter how short)
- Take a phone call from you
- Write a letter
- Draft a document or pleading
- Attend court or a settlement conference
- Participate in a text message string with you
Literally everything your attorney does will cost you, and they bill for every TENTH of an hour. Dash off an email to you? There’s 0.1 hours times $400 an hour, or $40. Those “quick emails” will add up quickly over the course of a month.
One thing you might not have thought about is your financial documents. There are lots of financial documents that will have to be gathered for your divorce. This will include things like bank statements, tax returns, pay stubs, loan documents, retirement account statements, etc.
Do you really want to pay your attorney to gather them for you? It could easily take a 2 to 5 hours for them to gather and organize these financial documents. If you’d rather save yourself $500 to $2,000, you could gather those documents yourself.
One of the keys to saving money on your legal fees in your divorce is doing some of the work yourself. You should talk to your attorney about what kinds of things you could help with in order to save money. Just a little do-it-yourself can save you hundreds or thousands of dollars!
The Divorce Money Guide is one of the best ways to start saving money. We walk you through our simple process that has been used by hundreds of women to conquer the finances in their divorces. From showing you exactly which documents you will need, to helping you get your bank statements and tax returns, and showing you how to organize them for your attorney… we have it all for you.
