How Much Does Divorce Cost | Santa Clarita

When I receive a call from a prospective client, one of the questions I ask is, “why did you chose to use a legal document assistant like me instead of hiring an attorney?”  The answer is always because of the cost of hiring an attorney is so outrageous.

Many of my clients first sought out an attorney.  After having paid $300 to $500 just for the consultation, they learn that just to retain the law firm they are looking at $5,000 just to get started.

So this leads us to the point of this article which is, “how much does divorce cost?”

I did a little research online to see what I could find as far as what other people estimate the cost of getting divorced to be.  Having worked at a law firms for some time, I will also advise you what I saw in the form of costs for divorce.

I found several articles about how much a divorce costs and it seems there that most people estimate the cost to be around $20,000.  In a recent article by Rachel Small called, “6 Ways to Minimize Hourly Attorney Fees When Getting Divorced” indicates that the average cost of getting divorced in the United States is approximately $15,000 with attorney’s fees that range but can be as high as $500 per hour.

Some sites estimated divorce costs to range from $53,000 on the low end to $188,000 on the high end for divorce.

No doubt it is expensive to get divorced.

When I worked for a law firm it was customary to pay $5,000 just for the initial retainer.  The retainer was billed against at the hourly rates until it was extinguished.  After that, the client was responsible for the the new charge each month for the continued representation.  And I will tell you that $5,000 goes really fast when you are being billed $500 per hour.

At that rate you are only getting 10 hours of work done toward your divorce case.

When faced with the need of going through a divorce, it is important to weigh the costs of hiring an attorney vs. using an alternative service such as a licensed and bonded legal document assistant such as us.

For some, it will be a simple question of whether or not you can afford an attorney.  The real questions is, “do you really need an attorney in the first place?”

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation service that specializes in the divorce process.  We offer an affordable divorce solution at fixed prices.  Please give us a call for more information.