On Monday, we posted 5 Ways You Can Save Money When Hiring A Divorce Attorney. Well today, since it’s our Fun Friday post, we thought we’d inform you on the ways we’ve noticed people have basically burned piles of money when going through a divorce. Listen, everyone knows that divorce is expensive. As Robin Williams explains it, “Divorce.. A yes, from the Latin word meaning to rip out a man’s genitals through is wallet.” You can get married in 5 minutes for the price of a marriage license, but sometimes Divorce is forever. We have cases that have lasted years, and the parties still aren’t ready to quit. It appears that in certain cases, the passion lies in the fight not the vows. Here are five ways you are destroying your bank account during your divorce case:
- Hiring a lawyer based off of advertising saturation: You may have seen this attorney all over every form of advertising, but not once in a court room. When you google what you need (divorce, child support, adoption) etc., this attorney may be everywhere you look, but that doesn’t mean they are the one you should hire. If you hire a lawyer based off of them drowning you with their image, you are hiring a character, not an expert. You need someone that will meet you at the consultation, answer your phone calls, AND go with you to court. If they are busy billing clients to make up for the high amount of advertising costs, which means you probably aren’t going to get much individual attention.
- Lawyer Shopping AFTER you’ve hired an attorney: You should realize that hiring multiple attorneys after you’ve begun a case, means that you have to pay for each attorney to relearn what the other attorney already knew. We aren’t saying that if your current attorney isn’t doing their job that you should stick with them but jumping from lawyer to lawyer will cause you the same cost for the same file review over and over.
- Not following an Order because you disagree with it: If you aren’t following an Order simply because you don’t like the outcome, you’ll probably end up in contempt. A judge won’t take pity on someone simply because they are taking on the attitude of “I do what I want!” If you are disobeying an Order because you CAN’T follow it, well that’s something your attorney can help you with!
- Calling your Attorney excessively: At our firm, we don’t like to say that we’re a hand holding firm because the thing is, we don’t want to bleed a turnip. We want our clients to feel that they can stand on their own two feet, and that we’ve got their back if they falter. We want to be your friend, but we want to be your advisor first. We want to ensure you that you aren’t racking up a huge bill simply because you’re wanting to vent for a little while. We shouldn’t be expecting your phone call each Friday afternoon because visitation is coming up. Stick to your papers… that’s why you have them!
- Destruction of marital property: Don’t do it. We know Carrie Underwood made it seem like a glorious idea, but it’s not. If you want to take a chainsaw to your husband’s shed outside, set afire to his hideous juvenile t-shirt collection, stomp on his Star Wars/Star Trek DVD collection, or blow up his Xbox, take a second to breathe and think about how much easier it would be to say you’re the sane one in court. However, if you have a moment of temporary insanity, be honest with us, because it’s easier to think up the proper defense when we aren’t doing it on the spot!