We've all heard horror stories about how divorce destroys wealth. Marital assets get divided, you start paying to support two homes, and the legal bills seem to stretch on for miles. Needless to say, legal fees are a very large component of divorce expenses -- but just how large?
This core question prompted the research team at AttorneyFee.com to undertake a huge research project about the cost of divorce. We are still sifting through some of the data, but as the results trickle in, we will share our findings here on The Huffington Post. The first question we will address is: what is the most expensive city in America for getting divorced?
Does divorce in Dallas cost more than separation in San Fran? Does the tab in Trenton outweigh the bill in Boston? To answer these questions, we've analyzed billing data from tens of thousands of divorce attorneys across the country. To see the results from your city, enter your zip code in the search box below.
Based on average hourly billing rates of lawyers across the country, the most expensive city in America for getting divorced is Los Angeles, California. Second to that is New York, followed by San Francisco and Miami.
At first glance, we might be tempted to explain this by stating the obvious: LA has some of the highest cost of living in the country, so it only makes sense that divorce lawyers there would charge the most. But in fact, this explanation doesn't hold water. When you compare the cost of legal services for other life cycle events, like retirement and succession planning, LA is number three, and first place goes to San Antonio. So we're left with the challenge of explaining why LA is the most expensive place in the country to get divorced.
Is there some nuance of Angelino culture that could explain this phenomenon, or is it as simple as supply and demand? Are divorce lawyers in LA just that much more talented than their colleagues in other cities? And how do you measure the value of your divorce lawyer's time?
Needless to say, a lawyer's hourly billing rate tells only part of the story. One lawyer might have a savvy strategy to get a quicker resolution, or another lawyer may spend twice as much time on the same task. Presumably, though, lawyers with equal amounts of experience should be equally savvy and equally efficient.
Let's close this with a few questions to stir the conversation. How much do you think the average divorce lawyer should charge for an hour of his/her time? What is the absolute most that you would be willing to pay? And for those of us that have actually been through the process, did your attorney charge more or less than you expected?
Click here to read about our methodology.
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This is *why* they came up with hard and fast child support guidelines in the first place. People used to spend years in court wrangling over how much child support would be paid. Now there is no argument, because it is a uniform formula. Now, people argue about property and alimony. If these things were determined by formula, the lawyers would go out of business.
I wouldn't exactly characterize Ohio's child support child support guidelines as "hard and fast". The law alone runs over 60 pages. Less than a third is the payment schedule. The other two-thirds are "judicial discretion". Part of that judicial discretion is imputing income. But magistrates have little if any training in vocational assessment.
Jane Chen and John Warner were full-time doctors earning a quarter million dollars each. They had two children. When they divorced no child support was ordered because their earnings were on a par and they shared physical custody of the children 50/50. Jane then decided to retire on her multimillion dollar nest egg. When the stock market went south and she could not afford her lifestyle, she went to court for child support.
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/grossman/20050614.html
The funny thing about it is that if you look at the statistics for the "marriage rate", Colorado looks about average. Why? Because people come to Colorado to have their destination weddings at resorts in the mountains. The same effect is why Nevada and Hawaii have the highest "marriage rates" in the country. If the data somehow weeded out all of the destination weddings, the marriage rate here is miniscule, and while the divorce *rate* is one of the highest in the country, the absolute number of divorces is dropping like a rock, because if you don't marry, you don't need to divorce.
The Colorado Bar continues to cling to the illusion that keeping the archaic divorce law here benefits them, thus they block every move to change them. Once no one is married anymore, they might finally realize that until the laws are made more humane, their business will continue to fall.
Also, NEGOTIATE. Ask the lawyer to give you a flat fee. A flat fee says, "I will pay you $5,000 (for example) for the whole case."
We get $495.00 per hour. Why? Because that is what we ask for and people pay it. (It is as simple as that.)