A person going through a divorce oftentimes feels a lot of financial burdens. For many people, they must adapt to paying for a place to live, utilities, credit card bills, medical expenses, childcare, and many other costs by themselves for the first time in a while. To add to this financial stress, most people also must figure out how to pay for an attorney to help assist them through the legal aspects of getting a divorce. All this financial stress can leave someone feeling exhausted and overwhelmed. At the Hunt Law Firm, we want to help alleviate this stress as much as possible by providing you with some tips in this blog on how to save money on legal fees during a divorce.
Minimize Fighting
The easiest, and most common, way to increase the amount of money you spend on attorney’s fees is by engaging in unnecessary and unproductive fights with your soon to be ex-spouse. Uncontested divorces, which mean the parties come to an agreement, are significantly less expensive than contested divorces, which are divorces where the parties are fighting over property, the children, or both.
In general, most things the parties fight over are not things that impact the legal case. For example, your attorney will likely advise that you do not start any new romantic relationships during the pendency of your divorce even if you no longer live with your spouse and are what you would consider “separated”. Texas does not have legal separations like some other states. Parties will oftentimes fight over the spouse’s new romantic partners. While it can be difficult to see one’s spouse start a relationship with someone new, especially when you are still married, try to not allow your feelings impact your legal case. When parties start fighting, this will only drive up both parties’ legal fees. Your goal should be to leave your marriage with as many assets as possible. You do not want to spend your money on attorneys because you and your spouse are fighting over things that you do not need to fight over.
Discovery
Discovery is a process where a party to a divorce will send documents, answers to questions, and otherwise disclose information to the other side. To start discovery, one party must send what are called discovery requests to the other side. Discovery requests usually include Request for Production, Request for Initial Disclosures, and Written Interrogatories. Sometimes parties also include another discovery request called Request for Admissions. You can learn more about the discovery process here.
Your attorney will ask you to provide them with documents and answers to discovery questions. Your attorney will use your documents and answers to respond to the discovery requests. It is important to provide your attorney with the requested documents. However, what you want to avoid is sending your attorney every single photo, video, and document you have ever had. Sometimes clients send a lot of documents that are not responsive to the specific discovery requests and will not be helpful at trial. This ends up costing clients a lot of money in attorney’s fees because the attorney or paralegal must review all the documents, photos, and videos to decide what is responsive to discovery requests or applicable at trial. We recommend that clients think through what they send to their attorneys. For example, do the discovery requests ask for fifty photos of my children playing at the playground? Or is this video of my children playing soccer helpful to my case? If you are unsure if you should send something to your attorney, you can always reach out to your attorney to get more guidance on what you should and should not send them. It will likely prove more cost effective to schedule a short call with your attorney to discuss what documents you need to produce rather than sending your attorney thousands and thousands of pages of unnecessary documents, photos, and videos.
When producing documents for discovery to your attorney, make sure that you are producing all the documents requested and not leaving certain documents out. For example, if the discovery requests ask for tax returns from 2020 to 2024, you will need to produce tax returns for each year within that timeframe. Oftentimes, clients will produce tax returns for 2021 and 2024 but fail to produce tax returns for the years 2020, 2022, and 2023. This matters because the other side might send you what is called a deficiency letter and file a Motion to Compel.
Normally, an attorney will first send the deficiency letter which outlines all the requested documents the opposing party did not produce during discovery. It will take time for your attorney to review and respond to the deficiency letter, which will of course increase your bill. Your attorney will likely have to supplement discovery, which means sending the additional requested documents and a new Response to Request for Production. All of this work will increase what you are paying in attorney’s fees. However, you can avoid this extra expense by producing all requested documents the first time.
If you still do not produce the requested documents, the opposing counsel might file a Motion to Compel. A Motion to Compel is a request to the court asking the court to require you to produce documents. Your attorney will have to appear in court for the Motion to Compel to argue why you did not produce the documents. If you do not have a good reason for not producing the documents, you will end up spending a lot of additional funds for no reason. Therefore, make sure that you provide the requested documents if you have them to your attorney in order to avoid unnecessary attorney’s fees.
Communication
Attorneys bill for client correspondence. This can lead some clients to not reach out to their attorneys with updates on the case for fear of being charged. On the other hand, some clients email their attorneys multiple times a day asking questions that might be better suited for another professional, such as a teacher or therapist. If you are going through a divorce, you will want to learn how to strike a good balance with how you communicate with your attorney. It’s important to speak with your attorney on their billing practices so you’re aware of what to expect.
When clients do not provide attorneys with updates, the attorneys will not know what is going on in the case. An attorney might draft certain pleadings or discuss topics with opposing counsel that are not necessary, but the attorney does not know that they are not necessary because their client has not updated them on the case. For example, a client might inform their attorney that the parties will come to an agreement on how to divide the parties’ assets. The attorney and client meet and discuss the specifics, so the attorney can start drafting up the agreement. A week goes by and the client finds out that their spouse will no longer agree to sell the marital residence. The client needs to inform their attorney of this update or else the attorney will spend unnecessary time drafting up an agreement that includes language regarding the sale of the marital residence. The client, in an attempt to save money by not emailing their attorney, will likely end up costing themselves more money with the attorney drafting language in an agreement that is not necessary.
On the contrary, attorneys cannot solve all the problems in a client’s life. Sometimes clients want answers or guidance to non-legal issues. Attorneys oftentimes can provide great guidance on non-legal topics, but it might be better and more cost effective to seek out an expert in the area the client needs assistance instead of discussing the problems with an attorney. For example, clients oftentimes want to vent about their emotions and thoughts about issues they are dealing with in their marriage. Attorneys are here to support their clients, but these issues might be better addressed by a therapist who can sit down with the client and talk everything out while charging a lower rate.
Another communication tip is to compile a list of all the questions or concerns you have about your case and send that list of questions to your attorney rather than sending questions in multiple emails. By communicating with your attorney in this way, you will receive all your answers at once and in one email, making it easier to refer back to in the future. Another reason to compile a list of questions is because it gives you time to think through your questions to ensure you are informed about your case. However, you should not put off writing an email with questions if you already have a list of questions because you might have more questions in the future. You can always email your attorney again. This tip is more so directed at some clients who send multiple emails back to back without really thinking through their questions. Sending an email with multiple questions rather than multiple emails with one or two questions each will likely cost you less in attorney’s fees because your attorney is not having to review and respond to multiple emails.
Mediation and Trial
Generally, the largest legal expense someone will encounter when going through a divorce is preparing for and going to trial. Most divorces are settled in what is called mediation. Mediation is a tool used to settle a case without going to Court. Parties attend mediation to work out an agreement. If the parties come to an agreement, the attorneys will draft up the agreement and get the case finalized with the court. However, in absence of an agreement, the parties will proceed to trial.
Not all cases can be settled at mediation, but if possible, settling at mediation is much more cost effective than trial. Sometimes conversations surrounding the divorce at mediation come down to finances. It is important to keep in mind the financial cost of going to trial in addition to the mental and emotional cost. For example, maybe your spouse is asking for $5,000 more from an account you share. You might feel frustrated that your spouse is asking for such a large sum of money. However, going to trial will likely cost you and your spouse more than $5,000. Try to do a cost benefit analysis in your head during mediation to determine whether an issue is worth going to trial over. You can ultimately save a lot of money on attorney’s fees if you can avoid trial.
If you take these tips into account, you will likely be able to save some money on attorney’s fees during your divorce. Going through a divorce is never easy and you might feel a financial strain at first. Remember that unnecessary fighting with your spouse will only increase attorney’s fees. Try to implement some of the tips we provided here and minimize fighting whenever possible in order to save money on attorney’s fees during your divorce.