Matrimonial law is a $28 billion industry, writes staff writer Leah Hoffman for Forbes.com, testifying to the high cost of divorce for the nearly 1 million Americans who end their marriage each year. The average cost of a divorce is like "asking how much a car costs," John Crouch, a family law attorney in Virginia, told Forbes.com. Divorces can cost anywhere from several hundred to several million dollars.
History
"Whatever happened to the $500 divorce?" asks attorney Craig G. Kallen III, writing for the online site Woman's Divorce. He answers his own question by noting more complex lives have led to more complex and expensive divorces. The average cost of an uncontested divorce involving lawyers as of 2010 is about $1,500 and a contested one runs more than $15,000.
Time Frame
A two-day trial for a contested divorce can set you back as much as $25,000, Hoffman writes. Less expensive alternatives, such as mediation, can cost about $5,000, while collaborative law runs $3,000 per spouse. Lawyers typically charge between $150 and $1,000 an hour for divorce cases, according to New York attorney David Alexander Browde, writing for Avvo, an online site that helps consumers handle their own legal issues. If you have an uncontested divorce, lawyers will likely charge a flat fee. In contested cases, your lawyer will bill you at between $75 and $350 an hour, Browde writes.
Considerations
If you can settle the details of your divorce without a lawyer, you can greatly reduce your bill. Online divorces cost from $95 to $299, depending on the online provider. Including court costs, the cost of the average online divorce rises to around $500, according to the online site Divorce Court Attorneys. If you lack shared debt and have agreed on custody arrangements, you can pursue an online divorce.
Expert Opinion
Attorney Kallen recommends paying your lawyer a flat fee for handling your divorce, to control costs, as hourly fees can mount past the flat-fee level. As a rule of thumb, expect pay a $1,000 fee for each contested issue you face, be it child custody, child support, division of property, spousal maintenance, or retirement accounts. He states that a divorce with one contested issue or none at all should cost around $1,000.
Comparisons
Even a $20,000 divorce is cheap compared with divorces involving couples in the worlds of finance, sports and entertainment. Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch's divorce cost him $1.7 billion, while Las Vegas casino owner Steve Wynn's cost him stock worth $955 million, reports The Week. The divorces of Michael Jordan, Neil Diamond, Harrison Ford and Steven Spielberg each cost more than $100 million, according to Reuters.
References
- Forbes.com: To Have and To Hold On To
- National Vital Statistics Reports: Births, Marriages, Divorces, and Deaths: Provisional Data for 2008
- Woman's Divorce: How to Save On the Cost of A Divorce
- Avvo: How Much Will My Divorce Cost AND How Do I Save Money On It?
- Divorce Court Attorneys: How Much Does a Divorce Cos
