Attorney Fees and Court Costs

I receive this question all of the time, which probably reflects poorly on what the general public thinks of the billing practices used by lawyers. However, the fee you are quoted will be the fee you pay, and the fee you are quoted will often be exactly what is listed here on the website. The fee quote may be $50 or $100 more, depending on the circumstances of your case (for example, complex property divisions will require quite a bit of additional time on my end to properly draft your paperwork, and will therefore lead to a slightly higher fee quote). Regardless of what fee you are quoted, that fee will not change once you have decided to move forward with my service.

Anything really. Cash, check, money order, credit / debit. Whatever the client prefers is fine with me.

Payment can be made in-person at my office (by appointment only, please), through the mail, over the phone, or through a secure online payment link, which I email out upon request.

Some firms have a "make a payment" button on their website, and I understand why, especially in situations where the firm is using ongoing hourly billing. However, for most of my cases, there will be a single payment of fees and then we're moving forward with the service. I'm never sending out bills or invoices, and, unless a payment plan is being used, the client is never in a position where they need to pay any sort of balance due (since the fees were paid upfront). That being the case, all online payments are made through links that I email out to the particular client upon his or her request. Once that payment is made, we're off and running towards a fast, clean, professional uncontested divorce.

There are essentially three ways in which spouses can agree to divide the attorney fee. First, they can make that arrangement between themselves, and I am never made aware of it. That is probably the most common way it's done (I say probably because, really, I often have no idea what sort of financial arrangments are being made outside of the service itself). Second, the client can request that the Marital Settlement Agreement calls for the Respondent (the spouse / unrepresented party) to reimburse Petitioner (the client spouse) for one-half (or whatever proportion the parties agree to) of the fees he or she incurred in bringing the case.

The third way would be for each party to pay one-half of the attorney fee directly to me. This is probably my least preferred method, simply because making a payment directly to me, while in actuallity made on behalf of the Petitioner, increases the likelihood that the Respondent / unrepresented spouse believes his or her interests are somehow better being served or protected that way. They are not, and if payment is divided this way, the Respondent / unrepresented party will have to sign documentation that they understand they are making a payment for the representation of their spouse. Bear in mind, the client / Petitioner is engaging in limited scope representation - so the difference in being the "represented" party versus the unrepresented party is as close to non-existent as possible.

There are, of course, times when a client believes they have a divorce that is uncontested, but turns out not to be. On these rare occassions, the client may be eligible for a refund of fees. The proportion of that refund will depend on what work has been done in their case. If the client contacts me and "cancels" the service prior to the drafting of their paperwork, then they will get a full refund of fees paid. This is an exceptionaly rare case, since most clients will find that their paperwork is ready for review within 48 to 60 hours of being hired.

Once I have completed the first drafts of the pleadings necessary to facilitate your divorce, about 90% of the heavy lifting involved with the case is complete, so I consider the same proportion of the fee to have been earned. In other words, if you cancel the service anytime after the paperwork is drafted, but before the case is filed, you will receive a refund of 10%. Once the case is filed, the entirety of the fee is considered earned.

The attorney fee for a QDRO is usually about $500. In addition to the attorney fee, there may also be an administrative expense charged by the plan administrator for the processing of the QDRO (those expenses will generally be deducted directly from the account being divided, however). For more information on Qualified Domestic Relations Orders, please refer to my Uncontested Divorce FAQ.

A quit-claim deed (often incorrectly referred to as a quick-claim deed) is a legal document that is signed by the party releasing his or her rights in a piece of real estate. The properly executed quit-claim deed is filed with the Recorder of Deeds office for whatever county the land is located in. Each county has their own specifications, so it's important that, if you choose to handle the quit-claim deed on your own, that you are aware of the particular guidlines of the recorder's office that you are filing in. I generally charge $100 for quit-claim deeds. There will be a filing fee paid to the recorder's office at the time of filing as well.