Understanding the Cost of Family Law Cases
Any family attorney would be remiss if he didn’t inform you of the expected financial and emotional cost of family law litigation. A good lawyer will discuss this issue right away at the initial conference and emphasize it monthly as he bills you for the services and costs.
Discussing Trial Costs
You and your family attorney will have plenty of discussion about the costs of trial well before the pretrial settlement negotiations. This cost includes fees for your attorney, experts, subpoenas and depositions. By the time initial discovery phase has concluded, your attorney will have grasped the issues and the facts of the case as well as the amount of time and expense necessary for trial.
Clarifying Trial Goals
As part of the discussion over the cost of trial, your family lawyer will mention objectives to achieve by moving your case to trial and the relevant strategies. Some of the topics include:
• Any specific goals your lawyer can achieve at trial that will not be met through settlement;
• The reasons why your attorney believes trial will be successful after negotiations filed; and
• How your attorney plans to persuade the judge that any of his settlement recommendations should not apply to a final judgment and that his recommendation was erroneous.
Your ultimate decision on whether to take the case to trial must factor in objective criteria and a serious cost/benefit analysis. For example, your lawyer may feel that the judge made an unreasonably low pretrial recommendation and believes that you deserve bigger slice of the marital estate or more contribution to support the children.
Attorney Van Smith is ready to offer you legal assistance in your family law case. To see what an experienced attorney can do for you, call his law offices at 1-804-325-1245 (Richmond) or 757-941-4298 (Williamsburg) for an initial consultation.