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Cost Estimates :
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A 15 minute initial consultation is free. It may be conducted by phone or office appointment. We believe that our clients trust us to handle their legal affairs competently and fairly and respect and appreciate our abilities. In turn, we trust that our clients will honor their financial commitment to us and respect our work enough to cooperate with the process and with our requests. It works very well for us and we truly have unique relationships with our clients. We genuinely want to take good care of them.
At our firm we have found that dissolution actions usually end up falling into one of three categories*:
- Uncontested Dissolution with Disclosures Only
- In this type of case the parties voluntarily disclose to each other all relevant information to arrive at an informed settlement. These disclosures are required by the family code and no judgment of dissolution can be entered by the court until the appropriate disclosures have been made.
- The parties agree on a shared custody order for their children.
- The parties agree on a substantially equitable division of property and debt.
- The parties agree on issues of spousal and child support.
- The parties need the assistance of their lawyers to negotiate and draft settlement agreements and a prepare a final divorce decree.
- The estimated cost range is between $5,000 - $25,000 to our clients depending on the complexity of the issues involved.
- Uncontested Dissolution with Full Discovery
- This is essentially the same as above, but for some reason (and many are valid), the parties cannot get to an informed settlement due to lack of information. The missing information may be innocent. (i.e., unavailable to either party) Or, the missing information may be an attempt to cheat. (i.e., suspicious accounting in a family run business, undisclosed financial assets, etc.).
- In this kind of case the disclosures required by the family code must still take place, but in addition to a voluntary exchange of information, our firm will employ the very powerful tools of discovery under the California Family Code and Code of Civil Procedure.
- It is still possible to reach an informed settlement after the discovery is complete, but due to the unforeseeable amount of work that may have be performed by lawyers and experts (forensic accountants, private investigators, etc.) it is difficult to accurately predict the cost of this kind of litigation.
- As rule of thumb, an uncontested dissolution, exercising the client's full discovery rights, will add an estimated $20,000 to $75,000 to the cost of a divorce that will end up with an estimated total cost of $45,000 to $100,000.
- Contested Divorce
- This is just what the name implies. There are no agreements on any property or support issues. The parties cannot agree on any set of facts or plans regarding the best custodial arrangements for their children.
- These kinds of cases end up compounding the tragedy of a divorce. By the time the litigation is complete, the community estate is exhausted and the parties are broke. As noted above, it is sometimes appropriate to "stick to your guns" on some issues.
- It is just as important to be selective as to what issues will be litigated and what issues will be settled, and to apply a cost-benefit analysis to these decisions.
- An estimated cost of $100,000 is a starting point to our client for a complete failure to reach any agreements at all**, even if our client is the reasonable party.
- Please note: Family Code 271, permits a judge to award attorney fees and costs to a party when the other party (and/or their attorney) have taken unreasonable positions and unfairly run up the cost of litigation. These sanction awards do not erase the fact that limited family resources may have already been consumed.
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