Tuesday, June 14, 2016

How Much Do Family Law Lawyers Cost?

Family law lawyers give advice and fight for their clients on many issues such as separation agreements, divorce, spousal support, matrimonial home considerations, custody and access and child support. How much their services will cost will depend on the complexity of the particular case at hand.

According to a 2015 survey by Canadian Lawyer Mag, for an uncontested divorce, for example, costs can range from $974 up to $1,588. Costs for contested divorces average as low as $4,336 up to as high as $25,417. When a trial is involved, average costs can be anywhere from $19,625 to $44,000, depending on the number of days the trial lasts. No matter how much the costs, you can be assured that lawyers will bill you for services rendered.

In most cases, when lawyer’s bill a client it will include a request for payment for lawyer’s fees and disbursements. Fees refer to the cost of your lawyer’s time, while disbursements are other related costs that the lawyer incurs for working on your case, such as expenses for photocopying, mailing and faxing. Lawyers will also ask clients to pay for any substantial costs incurred on the client’s behalf such as process server fees or court filing fees, the cost of hiring experts and costs for obtaining reports (such as medical reports).

Your lawyer may ask you to pay for disbursements and other costs upfront, or he can include these in his billing for his fees. There are several ways that lawyers may bill clients:

Retainer

In a retainer agreement, you pay the lawyer a deposit in order to retain his services throughout the duration of your case. The deposit amount is usually a percentage of what the lawyer expects his total bill will be at the end of the case. Generally, lawyers do not start working on any case until the retainer fee is paid.

Hourly Basis

A common arrangement in Canada is to pay lawyers by the hour. This means that your lawyer will bill you for every hour he spends working on your case. Typically, this will include phone calls he makes, relaying instructions to his assistant/secretary, taking documents to the court, and some lawyers will even bill you for hours spent driving to get to court. To avoid any conflict, you and your lawyer must agree from the start on what costs should be billed to you. On an hourly rate basis, a lawyer may bill you weekly, bi-weekly or monthly, depending on what arrangement is most affordable to you. In a retainer arrangement, the lawyer will bill hourly rates against the retainer fee. In this case, he will send a statement enumerating all costs paid from the retainer. Once the retainer is used up, your lawyer will ask you to provide another retainer fee or deposit.

Flat Rate

Lawyers are sometimes paid on a flat rate. In this case, a client pays a fixed amount for the service, no matter how much time a lawyer spends on it. This is usually for one-time services like drafting a Separation Agreement or notarizing a simple will. It is very unlikely for family law lawyers to work on a complex case for a flat rate, unless for some very special cases that have a cause for them.

Sliding Scale

In this type of payment arrangement, a lawyer will charge lower fees for low income clients. Typically, a client is required to present proof of income and assets to be considered on this basis.

Fees for family law lawyers and overall expenses for filing cases in court can reach excessive amounts. Whether you are being charged $250 or $50,000, make sure that your lawyer understands family law thoroughly and gives honest advice so that you get real value for the money you pay.

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