The average divorce is a perfect storm of stress, time, and money.
According to Lawyers.com “the average total cost of a full-scope attorney in a typical Georgia divorce ranges from $10,500 to $12,700” and the case lasts for about a year. That’s for just one attorney. The average cost for two attorneys, one for each spouse, would be $21,000-$25,400 in total attorney fees.
Our “Four Secrets” can help you avoid the storm:
It is well-established that more than 90% of all divorces end with an agreement between the parties.
There are two ways to get through a divorce: 1) work it out with your spouse for something you both can live with, or 2) hire a trial attorney to ask a judge or other strangers to make these life decisions for you, then hope they make the right decisions.
If there is a 90+% chance of an agreement, shouldn’t you explore that first, instead of starting a long, expensive, and probably unnecessary fight??
We believe the answer is yes. Regrettably, most family law attorneys don’t even ask this question.
Divorce attorneys routinely start a fight instead of exploring an early agreement. The more you fight, the more you pay in fees. Make sure a fight is your best option before starting one.
Absent any instructions to the contrary, most divorce attorneys file the case with the court, serve the spouse with the papers, and charge by the hour to fight. The spouse then hires their own attorney by the hour to fight back, and so goes one storm after another.
An agreement may not even be discussed until the parties have spent months of stress, time and money.
Your fee structure should work for you, not against you. Don’t pay for a fight if you are interested in an early agreement.
Most attorneys charge by the hour for a divorce because no one can predict how long a divorce fight might last. Hourly fees will pay your attorney to continue to fight. If you must fight, this is what you want.
However, if you are interested in an early agreement, then hourly fees can work against you. You don’t want to reward your attorney to continue to fight if that’s not what you want. Ask your attorney if they would be willing to charge you a flat fee to help negotiate an agreement. You can always start (and pay for) a fight later.
Our experience has been that if an agreement can be explored BEFORE any case is filed in court, then most of our clients can reach an early agreement and bypass the storm.
Schedule a free consultation with our attorney. Let’s see if we can help you save significant stress, time and money with a cooperative divorce instead of a fight. We can guide you through each step of the process and prepare all of the paperwork for your divorce.