If you’re thinking of filing for divorce, it’s understandable to want to find ways to keep your divorce affordable. According to a recent article in the New York Times, a couple can expect to pay anywhere from $15,000 – $20,000 on their divorce. And if your divorce is contested, you can expect to pay far more. A divorce involving major disagreements about child custody can cost upwards of $100,000.
Yet, these are just averages. Some divorces can cost far less.
But what exactly differentiates the costly divorces from the affordable ones?
Let’s take a closer look at the one factor that will determine the affordability of your divorce.
The One Factor That Will Determine the Affordability of Your Divorce
The only way to truly keep your divorce as affordable as possible is to keep your divorce amicable.
Couples who are willing to negotiate with one another are more likely to have fewer divorce costs than couples who litigate or take their divorce to court.
Litigation and disagreement will leave you spending more hours with your attorneys, which will raise costs. Disagreements might send you to court where a judge might order you to work with a mediator, which can also increase your hourly costs, especially if you must pay for your lawyers to also attend the mediation sessions.
Some couples might start out wanting to keep their divorce amicable and consider themselves low conflict, only to run into roadblocks when the time comes to mediate or negotiate crucial aspects of their divorce like child custody, time sharing with the children, and dividing debts and assets. Unexpected and unanticipated conflict can add to your divorce costs.
Other couples might think that amicable options are off the table because they have high conflict with their partner. This assumption might lead them to fail to explore options that could help them have a more amicable, and potentially, a more affordable, divorce.
For example, collaborative divorce lawyers help their clients learn communication skills and help their clients learn how to work with their emotions before negotiations begin. These skills can not only diffuse a high conflict situation but help couples create a strong foundation for more peaceful co-parenting.
Amicable divorce solutions include collaborative divorce, mediation, and document service. Couples with fewer assets or no assets, or no minor children, might consider solutions like do-it-yourself divorce, flat-fee divorce services, or online divorce services.
All these affordable options have one thing in common—they require a divorcing couple to commit to an amicable divorce.
In this article, we’ll take a closer look at some of these amicable divorce options and delve more deeply into why collaborative divorce might be the best option for some couples.
- Legal Document Review
- The Risk of These “Affordable Divorce” Options
- Mediation
- Consider the Reasons Why You Need Affordable Divorce
- Traditional Divorce
- Collaborative Divorce
Legal Document Review
Considered valid with, or without legal review, it’s generally advisable to have legal documents reviewed by your own divorce attorney, especially documents as important as those finalizing your divorce.
With collaborative divorce, your collaborative divorce lawyers can prepare your documents and legally review your agreement as you go, potentially saving you a step.
The Risk of These “Affordable Divorce” Options
The biggest risk of do-it-yourself, flat fee, and document service options is that the level of legal support of each option varies dramatically. Furthermore, none of these options provide additional support to help you and your spouse keep your divorce amicable. If communications or negotiations break down, you and your spouse could end up spending more on your divorce or end up in court.
Mediation
Hiring a mediator to help you negotiate your divorce settlement offers you and your partner the support you’ll need to keep your divorce amicable, but mediation may not offer you the legal protection you need or expect.
If you only hire a mediator, your mediator cannot provide you with legal advice, even if he or she is a lawyer. And a mediator may not even be able to help you draft your divorce paperwork.
With collaborative divorce, you hire a lawyer skilled in mediation, but who is ultimately there to represent you and your interests. Your partner also has their own attorney doing the same. Collaborative divorce therefore allows both parties to receive the peace of mind of legal representation while each spouse works with a lawyer skilled in conflict resolution and negotiation strategies—skills a mediator would also bring to the table.
Often individuals get confused about what mediation can and cannot offer. Couples might hire a mediator, only to realize later that they each still need to hire their own attorneys to review the settlement they reached with their partner during mediation.
Consider the Reasons Why You Need Affordable Divorce
Sometimes financial power imbalances in a marriage might leave one partner thinking he or she needs to use affordable divorce solutions. If your partner makes significantly more than you do, he or she might be required to pay your legal fees or help you lawyer up. The collaborative divorce attorneys at Truce Law may be able to help you.
If you and your partner truly don’t make enough money together to afford a lawyer, you may be able to access legal aid services. Free legal aid is available to individuals who meet certain income thresholds. When your children’s future and your finances are on the line, it’s important to get legal help, and fortunately, state and local governments can step in if you cannot afford legal services on your own.
Traditional Divorce
Every divorce will ultimately require both parties to compromise. How you reach those compromises will determine the cost of your divorce. Some couples don’t want to risk it with affordable options like flat-fee divorce or do-it-yourself solutions, so they choose traditional divorce.
In a traditional divorce case, each spouse hires their own attorney. Your lawyer will help you understand your individual rights, and then help you fight your former spouse either inside or outside of court to help you reach your goals. If anger, resentment, betrayal, and lingering feelings of grief aren’t addressed before this process begins, each partner’s feelings can end up getting played out on the very public and very expensive stage of the courtroom.
With collaborative divorce, both you and your spouse are represented by your own attorneys—like in a traditional divorce, but you both commit to keep your divorce out of court before you even begin.
Collaborative Divorce
With collaborative divorce, your lawyers are skilled negotiators, are skilled in conflict-resolution, and peaceful communication. Because negotiations take place in private, and not in court, there’s time to address emotions, so that clients can make decisions from a place of reason rather than emotion.
With collaborative divorce, you and your partner each hire your own attorney to represent you through the process, so you’re still receiving legal representation every step of the way, but your attorneys are both committed to helping you and your partner resolve your disagreements amicably and outside of court.
During your divorce, you’ll have to make serious financial and legal decisions that can impact your life for years to come. The parenting plan you agree to will affect your children for the remainder of their childhood and will affect you, and the choices you can make until your children turn 18.
The financial decisions you make during your divorce can affect everything from your retirement to your financial security for years to come. Being able to make these decisions from a calm and collected place, rather than from a place of anger, resentment, and grief, can make a big difference in the outcome of your divorce.
Collaborative divorce lawyers are skilled in helping clients understand the deeper motivations guiding their choices in divorce, and are skilled at helping clients navigate big feelings, so that they can ultimately negotiate their divorce settlement from a place of peace and reason rather than high emotion and anger.
The Hidden Costs
When couples use traditional divorce or flat-fee options, the couple might still need to hire additional professionals to help them get to a settlement. For example, they might each hire their own mental health professionals or family counselors to help them create their parenting plan. Or they might hire a financial advisor to help them with the division of assets, debts, or retirement accounts.
These professionals may or may not work together through the process, or if they do work on the divorce, they might be hired in an adversarial way in a traditional divorce. For example, to provide a home study, a psychological evaluation, or to help with financial disclosures.
With collaborative divorce, your collaborative divorce attorneys can help you identify the professional services you’ll need from the outset, and help you coordinate these professionals so that they work together to help you reach a settlement. With collaborative divorce, there are fewer surprises. You hire your lawyers, your financial advisor, and therapist at the start, and they work in concert—and with you—to help you reach an amicable divorce settlement.
Collaborative divorce lawyers can help you coordinate meetings with these professionals before you sit down to negotiate your divorce, so that you can work through financial disclosures and retirement planning with your financial advisor, and work through your emotions with your therapist, before you sit down at the negotiating table with your lawyers—potentially saving you time and conflict.
Collaborative divorce can sometimes be more costly than some of the affordable services mentioned earlier, like mediation alone, or flat-fee services (in some cases), but collaborative divorce will almost always be less costly than taking your divorce to court or using the traditional divorce process. And sometimes, the coordinated aspect of collaborative divorce can end up costing you less when you consider the fees you’ll pay to additional professionals when these professionals aren’t coordinated.
Choosing the Right Divorce Option for You
Ultimately, the right divorce option for you will depend on your unique circumstances. It’s just important that you go into the decision informed about each method’s potential drawbacks and hidden costs.
If you are still exploring your affordable divorce options, consider reaching out to Truce Law, collaborative divorce lawyers in Seattle, Washington. Book a Case Evaluation with our team to learn more. We can review your situation and help you explore your options—and explore whether collaborative divorce is a good choice for you.
This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Every situation is unique. For guidance specific to your circumstances, consult a licensed family law attorney in your area.