The Affordable Orange County Court Divorce

One of the first questions asked when filing a divorce proceeding is, “how much will it cost?”  Finances will be usually one of the main issues in an Orange County court divorce case.  First of all, everyone wants the most “affordable” attorney.  However, everyone also wants the “best” attorney possible.  It is possible to get both, if you are smart.  In this economy everyone is trying to save and be more careful with their money.  No one wants to pay more than they have to in a divorce.  However, people want to know that they are going to be taken care of by their attorney. So, what is “affordable?”  It all depends on if the attorney you are considering to hire will “work with you” when it comes to financing a divorce.  During a divorce, emotions are running high and people are desperate.  Especially when children are involved, some people will pay anything to just resolve the whole legal situation quickly and with the least amount of pain.  In such moments of panic or desperation, some people don’t make very smart choices in hiring an attorney to represent them.

The first and most important step to take when hiring an “affordable” attorney in an Orange County court divorce case is to go for a consultation.  Most attorneys will give free consultations.  It will cost you nothing but a little bit of time to get the legal opinion of your divorce case by an attorney.  Then after you have given the attorney your information, ask him or her how many hours the case will require to get resolved. The attorney will most likely give you several scenarios because a divorce case is hardly ever a cut and dry type of case.  If this happens, then the case will take this many hours, ect.  Not every divorce case ends up in front of a Judge in the Orange County Court.  Divorce proceedings are sometimes quite simple and do not require for you to go to court at all.  However, some cases are impossible to settle and they end up in Court often.   In which case, your attorney will be in Court, billing your case by the hour.  You can do the math.  Every attorney has an hourly rate.

Most every family law attorney will require a retainer agreement to be signed and a retainer fee to be paid before starting to work on the case.  The retainer is probably a good indication of how many hours the attorney will need to complete your case.  It will just depend on how simple or complex the issues in your Orange County court divorce case may be.  After the retainer fee is “used up” and billed, every attorney will bill hourly or require another up front fee to continue working on the case.  Make sure you read and understand the retainer agreement before signing it.  Make sure that you are clear on what the attorney is including in his or her billing.  Will the attorney bill you for phone calls to the office?  How about the cost of mailings and copies?  If your case happens to be one that goes to trial, the copying costs could get quite high.  Simply ask the attorney if they will take installment payments on an initial retainer fee.  See if the attorney will allow you to do some copying to keep the costs low.  It doesn’t hurt to ask.