Divorce is expensive, typically costing individuals thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars in expenses even before considering the financial impact of splitting all of your possessions with your spouse. Trying to keep costs low is a practical concern for many people.
Some people make the riskiest decision in order to save money, which involves giving up the help and guidance that comes from working with an experienced family law attorney. In general, it is always advisable to have your own counsel when undergoing a massive legal issue, such as divorce.
Instead of avoiding a lawyer as a way of keeping your costs low, there are other ways for you to minimize expenses while trying to end your marriage.
Consider a lower-cost uncontested filing
One of the reasons that people rack up so many thousands of dollars in attorney costs and court fees relates to the courts reviewing many details about the family circumstances and hearing testimony before making decisions. If a couple doesn’t agree about property division and custody issues, it can cost tens of thousands of dollars to battle over those issues in the court.
If you and your ex can work collaboratively with your individual lawyers or go through mediation successfully, you can potentially file uncontested divorce proceedings where you set your own terms and the courts simply approve them.
Be conscientious about the way that you approach issues
Divorce is typically an emotional and difficult process, and those feelings often spill out in unexpected ways. What was meant to be a two-minute phone call to your attorney could turn into two hours of airing your grievances. Those kinds of decisions can quickly add up to drastically increase how much you spend on your divorce.
Email is often a great solution because it gives you an opportunity to communicate without consuming large amounts of your lawyer’s time. It’s also useful because you can hold your emails before you send them, a practice that can also help your communication with your ex.
Try to focus on your future and priority rather than your feelings
Even if an uncontested divorce isn’t an option for you and your ex, that doesn’t mean that every single interaction has to turn into a fight and that you have to push back on every demand they make.
If you are realistic about the fact that the courts are going to try to split your property fairly and keep both of you present in the lives of your children, you can focus your divorce efforts on the terms that matter the most to you, like certain pieces of property and securing a fair share of the parenting time with your children.
