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How To Minimize the Expense of Divorce |
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The ultimate financial cost of a divorce is determined by maximizing the financial benefits and minimizing the financial costs. There is an obvious trade-off between the two. Litigation is the most expensive way of resolving a divorce and should be viewed only as a last resort. The benefits of litigating (to achieve a divorce judgment that is marginally more favorable to you) can often be outweighed by the costs to you of the litigation, so we constantly need to focus on how best to win in the truest sense of the word. Also, if you litigate, you are rolling the dice that the court will decide the issue in your favor. Courts have tremendous discretion in many areas of family law and often decide cases based upon quick impressions and factual determinations about you and your spouse. As a result, you could end up with a judgment that is not better than what you could have negotiated, and you end up paying the costs of the litigation too. As a result, we should make serious efforts to avoid litigation unless absolutely necessary to protect your rights and interests. In an ideal divorce (as the Law Offices of Duane G. Henry attempts to manage them), the parties reach a divorce agreement (with lawyer help) without even going to court. Here are my favorite strategies to avoid court and minimize costs if possible. Negotiate: The most cost-effective way through a divorce is to negotiate as many of the terms of your divorce as possible with your spouse. You should resort to litigation only if and when negotiation fails. To negotiate successfully, you need the participation of an experienced and skilled attorney to advise you at the very beginning of the negotiation process and then at all critical stages along the way. Because of the strained relationship with your spouse, you may want the Law Offices of Duane G. Henry to handle the negotiation entirely. The reason for lawyer involvement early in your negotiation is that you need to know your rights, your spouse's rights, and how a court is likely to rule on each issue if it were to be litigated. Only then can you negotiate a fair outcome that fully protects and benefits you to the maximum extent possible. The Law Offices of Duane G. Henry have been negotiating agreements since 1976 and will use that experience for your benefit and protection. Your spouse, or your spouse's attorney, is more likely to take the Law Offices of Duane G. Henry seriously in negotiations than if you were acting alone. Mediate: Mediation is a method to assist the negotiation process using a neutral third party. The Law Offices of Duane G. Henry have had extensive experience and training in mediation and often get asked to mediate family law disputes by the Contra Costa County Bar Association. The Law Offices of Duane G. Henry can serve either (a) as your mediator or (b) as your mediation attorney-advisor during mediation, but not as both. If we are your mediator, we represent neither you nor your spouse. Instead, we act as a neutral third party to help you and your spouse brain storm and explore ways that benefit both of you for resolving your divorce without litigation. As mediator, we will then encourage each of you to take those tentatively-resolved issues back to your own personal mediation attorney-advisors so each of you can obtain personal legal advice. A mediator cannot give personal legal advice. Mediation is a powerful tool and can break through very difficult disputes. It also holds down costs. If you are considering using the Law Offices of Duane G. Henry as mediator, consider discussing this concept with your spouse first. Refer your spouse to this website. One of you can then call the Law Offices of Duane G. Henry to schedule an appointment for both of you to attend. You should not discuss the issues in your case with us unless both of you are on the telephone or are at the appointment. Otherwise the other spouse may feel you are attempting to bias us and affect our neutrality. Once we meet, you and your spouse can decide if you are both comfortable with us as mediator. If we are your mediation attorney-advisor, we assist and advise you, and you alone, during the course of the mediation. The mediator will be a different attorney and totally neutral as between you and your spouse. The mediator cannot provide either spouse with personal legal advice. We provide you with the personal legal advice that the mediator cannot provide. We help you determine what your legal rights are in advance of mediation, and then we help you determine which tentative resolutions of issues (coming out of the mediation process) are fair and in your best interests. We help you determine where and where not to compromise. We help you determine whether further mediation and negotiation of an issue appear to be hopeless and where litigation is required. Unbundle (Limited Scope Representation): Do some of the work on your divorce with our advice and assistance. If you are operating on a limited legal budget and have time to do some of the simpler, but time-consuming, work involved in your divorce yourself, the Law Offices of Duane G. Henry can assist you in determining what tasks need to be done and which you can do yourself. Since attorneys bill for their time, the more tasks in your divorce that you can perform yourself, the lower your legal fees will be. Additionally, there is something psychologically empowering about discovering that, with our guidance, you can proficiently accomplish a number of the steps in the divorce process yourself. A number of the steps are relatively routine and mundane. They are not 'rocket science'.
Avoid Paralegal Divorce Services and Other Non-Professional Divorce Advisors: We wish we could recommend these services for simple divorce cases as they often charge less per hour than an attorney. Unfortunately, they rarely understand the legal issues, even the simple ones. You will usually end up spending much more in legal fees dealing with the mess these Divorce Services create for you. Often the Law Offices of Duane G. Henry can 'unbundle' work to you (that you can then do for yourself for free) that these Divorce Services would charge you for. With a little guidance from us, you will do a better job on the simple parts of the case and at a lower cost. Plus, you will receive real legal advice from a fully experienced and trained attorney. If you have started out your divorce by using a Divorce Service, call the Law Offices of Duane G. Henry for a free consultation and let us see if we can improve your situation. |
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Reduce the Expense of Divorce |
