How Much Will it Cost?
It’s reasonable to be concerned about the cost of your legal representation. Attorney’s hourly rates are high and litigation can be extremely expensive. At the same time, you want to choose your battles wisely. Paying an attorney to protect your rights is a smart investment, but spending $750 in legal fees fighting over a $75 dining table isn’t.
Here’s some basic information about family law fees and costs, among Sonoma County family law practitioners in general and at my office.
Rates and Retainers
Rates
Most established family law attorneys in Sonoma County – those who have been practicing for over a decade – typically charge between $200 and $550 per hour. My regular rate is around $400 per hour. If there is an emergency, such as a need for a domestic violence restraining order, or there is work that necessarily has to be done on weekends or outside of regular business hours, the rate is $500 per hour. Some tasks, like service of process or e-filing documents, are billed at $100 per hour.
Total Fees
Even people who think their case is going to be very easy and amicable will run into issues that become expensive: Husband misunderstood what Wife was offering, or Spouse One agreed to give up their right to Spouse Two’s retirement account until they found out just how much that asset was worth. As a rule, the things that make divorce expensive include (a) multiple issues to address, (b) extensive assets, (c) businesses that need to be valued, (d) high-conflict custody issues, and (e) a relationship between the parties that is contentious enough to create lots of arguments. The more the parties agree on, the faster and more affordable the case will be.
Retainers
Typically, an attorney will ask for a retainer that is enough to cover most or all of the work that needs to be done on your case. If a case has a lot of issues, or is particularly complicated or contentious, this will mean a larger retainer. It’s very rare for a retainer to be less than $7,500 at the start of a case. However, as one of our clients liked to say, “You know why divorce is so expensive? Because it’s worth it.”
I will always strive to get you the best value for your legal fees and conduct a cost-benefit analysis with each issue we tackle together.
Levels of Service
There are two different ways you could hire an attorney: for “everything” or for “less than everything.”
What does that mean? Well, if you have just been served with divorce papers, you might need legal assistance with a lot of different issues. Lets’s say your case deals with custody, visitation, child support, temporary spousal support, division of a family business, determining what is community property and what is separate property, dividing assets and debts, establishing who pays whose legal fees, determining post-judgment spousal support, and changing your legal status from “married” to “single.” You would hire a lawyer to handle all of those issues, and that attorney would be your attorney of record. That would be “everything.”
If your case had fewer issues, being represented for “everything” would be simpler. For example, suppose your divorce is final but you still have kids living at home. If your ex gets a raise and you file a motion to modify child support, your attorney of record would litigate that issue for you and then would be done.
When your lawyer represents you on all issues, he or she is your “Attorney of Record”. This is the most common and most traditional option, the one where your attorney handles everything for you. If an unforeseen issue comes up, your attorney of record will address it as part of your representation.
In a limited number of cases, you may have multiple issues “before the Court” or “on the table,” but you feel you can handle most of them yourself. Say you and your co-parent agree on custody and visitation, but you feel like child support is too complicated and you’re out of your element. In that case, you could ask an attorney to represent you on a limited scope for only one or two issues. To do this, you and your lawyer would sign and file what is called a “Notice of Limited Scope Agreement.” This limits your attorney to only the issue or hearing that you’ve agreed on.
Legal Services
“Ms Applegate was absolutely incredible! I would HIGHLY recommend her w/ no reservations what-so-ever. I only wish we’d found her sooner! We were dealing w/ a custody/ visitation issue with my fiance’s 16 year old daughter. We had already spent a fortune and dealt with several incompetent attorneys when we finally came to her. We were frustrated and discouraged.
Ms Applegate was honest about our situation, gave us all our options, and worked extremely hard to get us a wonderful outcome. She communicated with us frequently, we were able to get a hold of her any time we tried, and she made us feel comfortable and positive! I can honestly say I have never had such a positive experience with any attorney. I only wish there was more we could do to convey our gratitude for her excellent service.
Thanks to her we will have our daughter here in two weeks for a summer visit, and again at every major holiday til she turns 18! Ms Applegate is knowledgeable, intelligent, eloquent, and determined to get a favorable outcome for her clients.“
~Sandra, a custody/visitation client
~David, a custody/visitation client