When many people think about expenses associated with divorce, they often focus on expenses that do not occur until after you sign the final paperwork. For instance, many people focus heavily on child support or potential alimony payments.
However, divorce itself can cost a lot of money as a procedure. Fortunately, there are some clever ways to manage this. Two good ways to save money are to ensure that you do as much of the work as you can on your own, and that you carefully communicate with your divorce attorney.
What work should I be doing?
Anything directly associated with the law is your attorney’s job. However, divorce is fundamentally a financial lawsuit. This means that the divorce attorney is going to need information about your assets. If you have the lawyer do all of the research, you will need to pay the lawyer for his or her time.
If you want to save money on this process, it is a good idea to fetch all of these financial records on your own. Doing this yourself can save you thousands of dollars.
What should I know about communication?
In a legal sense, divorce is financial. However, divorce is also very emotional. It is easy to get caught up in your emotions and end up having a heart-to-heart with your attorney unintentionally. Remember that this will end up being very expensive, and your lawyer is not best equipped to deal with this.
It is better to seek emotional support from professional counselors. Anytime you pick up the phone to contact your attorney, make sure that you absolutely need a phone conversation. Many times, an email is quicker and thus cheaper.