FEES & COSTS

Everyone wants to be careful with attorney fees, us included. Potential clients always ask our lawyers how much their case will cost. Unfortunately, we can’t provide much insight into their final bill, because there are too many factors at play. The most critical factor impacting the overall cost of a case is the degree of conflict. A client’s ability to control the degree of conflict in a family law dispute is sometimes limited. The amount of conflict is often unknown or underestimated.

Many other factors may also impact the cost of a case. Those include poor strategic planning and selecting an attorney based on factors not related to your goal. Since there are so many things impacting the cost of a case, it’s impossible for a good attorney to quote you an overall cost. We can, however, use our experience to provide you insight into how certain factors impact the average cost, as determined by the American Bar Association. Studies provide insight on average costs, but it can be a mistake to assume your case falls in the “average” category.

Being realistic about the extent of conflict in your case will give you the best estimate of your potential costs.

At Modern Family Law, we provide our clients with a convenient, “pay as you go” plan.  Our clients avoid excessive up-front retainers and keep more of their resources for life’s other demands.

Modern Family Law retainers are not designed as “pre-payments,” but rather operate similarly to security deposits which a client gets back at the end of their case.  These retainers act as a promise that a client will pay their bill, just like any other security deposit.

For example, many firms may quote you $5,000 as a retainer.  They’ll bill their fees from that retainer and then they may ask you for another one.  Their retainer operates like an advance.  But then your money is tied up in your lawyer’s bank account.  We think you probably need it more than they do.

Our firm may quote you $3,000 as a retainer (amount varies).  We then bill you for whatever work we do, twice a month – pay-as-you-go.  Once your case is over, we give you back your retainer of $3,000, less any outstanding balance.  Our retainer operates more like a security deposit.

More control. Better accountability.  Lower upfront cost. You need your resources more than your lawyer does.

You should always discuss all fee agreements carefully with your divorce attorney.  Every divorce is different, and all processes require different levels of debate, litigation, and evidence presentation.  Quoted retainers are never an estimate of what your case may cost.

1. Carefully pick and choose your battles.
2. Resolve as many issues as you can with your spouse at the kitchen table.
3. Those issues you can’t resolve, take to a mediator with your lawyers present.
4. Hire a very good mediator.
5. Work very hard at mediation to resolve all of your issues.
6. Use your attorney’s staff time, rather than the attorney’s time.
7. Don’t hire someone because they make big promises.

Multimillion-dollar marital estate cases can often settle for only a few thousand dollars in attorney fees, while smaller estate cases can explode into the unmanageable. The distinguishing factor isn’t the size of the estate, but rather the degree of conflict.

The color of the tennis shoes, grandma’s dish towels, high-efficiency light bulbs – all potential sources of conflict.  Any of these conflicts could cost more in attorney fees than your next mortgage payment.  Is it worth it?  Instinctively, we know it’s not.  But people fight over things like this – and spend their life savings doing it – all the time.  Why?

Sometimes, it’s a proxy.  They’re not really fighting over gramma’s dish towels.  They’re using gramma’s dish towels as retribution for cheating, or anger over broken promises.  We also wonder if proxy fights aren’t because a party isn’t ready to let go yet.  We get it.  We’ve been there, too.

But at Modern Family Law, it’s our job to interject objectivity into decisions about which conflicts are worth engagement.  One day, you’ll look back and view these decisions with a different lens.  We want you to be glad you hired us, not resentful that your lawyer stoked a pointless conflict.