What It Means To Retain An Attorney | Santa Clarita

We do not want to advise anyone not to get legal advice when they need it.  However, most people never need to retain a divorce lawyer during their divorce unless there is a good reason that you need to.

First, what is a “retainer agreement?”  A retainer agreement is where the attorney takes on your case and now has a professional responsibility to act on your behalf.  They have now been hired to represent you in your divorce.

The retainer agreement spells out the agreement between the party to be represented and the attorney of law firm.  The retainer will advise you what the law firm will do to represent you and what you can expect during the divorce process.

The retainer agreement is also about the fees do to the law firm for the work they do on your case.  It will detail the amount of money you are to leave as a deposit and spells out how the fees will be charged against your deposit.

What a lot of people learn to late is that the amount an attorney asks you to leave as a deposit to retain their firm, is not the total amount for your divorce.  They call it a retainer fee or deposit.  It is simply the amount of money you are giving them to retain them.  You will be responsible for any work done on your case that exceeds the deposit or retainer amount.

So many of my clients started off with a divorce lawyer, plopped down $5,ooo thinking that the deposit amount was the full amount to be represented during their divorce.  Later they get a bill for the charges incurred and don’t know why.  Even though it was expressly stated in the fee agreement, they are shocked to find out that their bill has doubled and they are not even close to being divorce yet.

Read my article on the costs of divorce for more information.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation service that specializes in the divorce process.  Please give us a call for more information about our divorce legal services.