Six Tips On How to Minimize Your Attorney’s Fees in a Divorce or Family Law Case

saveWhen you are going through a divorce or family law matter, it can cost a lot of money to hire an attorney. However, if you want to successfully navigate through the Probate and Family Court and the litigation process, having a lawyer can be crucial. There are ways, however, to minimize your legal fees from your attorney and achieve your goals. Here are six tips.

• 1. Understand what your attorney will charge for. Under Massachusetts ethical rules for attorneys, your attorney is required to sign a fee agreement with you outlining the scope of the work to be performed by the attorney on your behalf. Within the fee agreement, there will be an outline of what work the attorney will perform, and what you will be charged for. This typically includes all work that the attorney must do on your behalf, not just going to court. So this can include, but not be limited to, emails between you and your lawyer, phone calls between you and your lawyer, written correspondence with opposing counsel and the court, phone calls with opposing counsel and the court, and drafting pleadings, motions and other documents for court.

Generally speaking, any time your lawyer has to do something for your case, you will be charged to the closest 0.1 of the hour (i.e. every 6 minutes). One way to save costs on this is to avoid repeated phone calls or emails to your attorney. For example, if you email your attorney 10 times in a week, and then call your attorney 3 times I a week for an update on your case, you will be billed for your attorney to review each of these emails and return the telephone calls. Frequently, attorneys have meetings and court appearance outside the office many times a week, so if your attorney does not respond to you immediately, it is likely that he/she is at a meeting or court hearing outside the office. Rest assured, your attorney will respond to you as soon as possible, but if you contact your attorney multiple times for the same reason, you will be billed multiple times.

• 2. Consider a cost-benefit analysis of what is at issue. Frequently in divorces, one issue in dispute is the division of personal property. It is not uncommon for spouses to spend a large amount of time, and also have their attorneys spend a large amount of time, arguing over who gets what personal property. However, remember your attorney is charging you by an hourly rate for any work performed. If the issue in dispute, such as personal property, is not of significant value, you may end up owing your attorney more money than the issue is worth. A common issue in dispute is furniture, dishes and flatware. Oftentimes these items do not have a significant value, but by the time spouses are done fighting over this property, they have spent hundreds, if not thousands of dollars, to resolve this issue. It sometimes is not financially worth involving your attorney over certain issues with your ex.

• 3. Try to resolve issue out of court. Going to court takes a lot of time and money. Oftentimes, court appearances can last at least half a day, if not more. That means, you are charged by your attorney for being in court for that full amount of time. However, if you can work to reach an agreement outside of court, then the amount of time your attorney will be in court is substantially reduced. Negotiation with your ex, or negotiation between attorneys can be very useful to avoid the need to go to court.

• 4. Consider your attorney’s advice and recommendations. Your attorney is very knowledgeable about your divorce or family law matter, especially the related law and what a judge is likely to do for your case. Listen to your attorney’s advice and recommendations. As the client, you are the master of the case, and in control of what happens. However, it is very likely that your attorney is giving you recommendations with a reasonable degree of certainty of what will happen. You have every right to not follow your attorney’s recommendations, but if you choose not to, it could lead to more litigation, and thereby more attorney’s fees. If you have a good reason to not follow your attorney’s advice, then express that reason to your attorney. Otherwise, you should thoughtfully consider what your attorney is recommending and advising to you.

• 5. Consider Mediation. Mediators can be very useful in reducing attorney’s fees. In a few hours of presenting your case to a mediator, the case can typically be settled and resolved in its entirety. Mediators sometimes charge a flat fee, or lower hourly rate compared to an attorney. This is a good method to save money during the litigation process. If you want, your attorney can attend the mediation with you, or you can meet with your attorney afterwards to draft, review, and finalize the settlement agreement to finalize your divorce or family law matter.

• 6. Consider Limited Assistance Representation (LAR). The Probate and Family Court has a program called Limited Assistance Representation (LAR), whereby a spouse or parent can retain an attorney to represent them in a divorce or family law matter, but not for the entire matter. Rather, the client chooses what to retain the attorney for. This can be to consult the attorney throughout the litigation process, to draft certain documents, to attend certain court hearings, but not others, and so on. Because you choose where to utilize your attorney throughout the process, you can minimize the legal fees you incur. The benefit of this is that you get the expertise of an attorney where you need it, but the drawback with LAR is you do have to do some work on your own.

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  1. Ben Allen says

    I appreciate the information on how to minimize attorney fees while going through a divorce. I agree that it is important to ensure that you know exactly what the attorney will charge you for and when the attorney will charge you, this can help you to prioritize the questions you ask. My sister is in need of a divorce attorney, I will be sure to share these tips with her.

  2. Megan Alder says

    My sister is talking about getting a divorce, and I hope that I can be there to help her. She’s been having a hard time, her and her spouse have fought a lot. I’ll have to start looking for a good divorce attorney for her.