Mitigating Attorney’s Fees For Your Client’s

Notwithstanding the spite and revenge one or both parties may be feeling during a divorce, since the recession, divorce litigants have generally become more cost conscious.  No longer may a litigant finance his or her divorce through equity in their home, or even through a 401(k).  Parties can no longer afford to thoroughly litigate every issue, but instead want a fair settlement, for a reasonable fee.

While many lawyers strive to achieve a fair resolution for their clients at a reasonable fee, lawyers do not want to commit malpractice by over simplifying a case or reaching a settlement where the client is not fully informed.  Attempting to balance the client’s desire for a quick and inexpensive divorce against the attorney’s obligation to achieve a fair resolution for the client and avoiding malpractice can be tricky.

What may we attorneys do to adequately litigate a case without forcing our clients into bankruptcy or risk our client from being unable or unwilling to pay their fees?

First, I provide some “tips” for my clients to mitigate their attorney’s fees:

Consolidate your calls.  Rather than call your attorney every time you have a question, write down your questions and unless it is an emergency, consolidate your questions into one call, rather than three or four.  Most lawyers will charge a minimum fee for any telephone conversation so clients can save money by calling fewer times.  Most attorneys do not mind taking your telephone calls whenever you have a question, but you may not like it much when you get your bill at the end of the month.

Whenever possible, speak with  my staff.  They can generally answer most nonlegal questions and you are billed less for their time than you are for mine. Many times I do not bill for client telephone conversations with staff.

Use email.  Rather than call your attorney and not having completely thought out your question, write your question out and email it.  Many lawyers charge less for an emails than telephone conversations.  More important, if your lawyer doesn’t know the answer off the top of his head and have to charge you for a second call, he or she can research and email you with an appropriate answer.  Further, you don’t have to try to remember what your lawyer told you or misunderstand what you were told, you have a written record.

Organize your documents, thoughts and promptly provide your attorney with any information or answers he or she requests.  Every time an attorney has to follow up or request information a second time, it costs you money.

Next, I carefully explain to the client that whether the case will be contested, or uncontested, they need to fully complete the Financial Disclosure Form.  If the case is contested, it is obvious why the form must be completed, but even in those cases that are uncontested, I require my clients to complete the form so they can be sure they accounted for every asset and debt.  Often, the form will remind a client of an asset or debt (like cash value in a life insurance policy) they had not considered.  Moreover, I will need the complete information from the form to properly prepare a decree of divorce or property settlement agreement.  Many clients are resistant to completing the form or providing the necessary information.  I try to briefly explain why it’s necessary, and then if the don’t understand why, or don’t want to understand why, I explain that trying to fight the process will simply cost them more money.

It is important to simplify the case as much as possible.  Your client, opposing counsel, nor the judge will be impressed with a complicated solution to a complicated issue, let alone a complicated solution to a simple issue.  Simple solutions to complicated issues are much more impressive and effective.  Dividing a case into custody issues, property and debts issues and support issues is the best approach in most cases.  From the beginning, it is important to set reasonable expectations for the client.  While some clients simply want you to say what they want to hear, most appreciate the hard reality of your advice.  For those clients who do not want to hear the hard reality up front, you will have a harder time managing their expectations later in the case when the realities start setting in.

Stipulate to as many issues as possible, no matter how simple.  Not only does agreeing to minor issues “take them off the table,” but often will provide positive momentum to resolve additional issues.  For the issues that you are unable to stipulate, at least stipulate to a mechanism to resolve the issues, such as a joint expert or arbitration.