How Much Does It Cost to Get Divorced?

People often ask me how much it costs to get divorced. Or how much their divorce is going to cost. That is not a straight-forward, easy question to answer. Especially with no information about a person’s particular situation.

Asking an attorney how much your divorce will cost is like asking a home builder how much will it cost to build a house. Answering that question requires a great deal of information. What type of foundation? How big do you want your house? One story or two? Brick or siding? What type of roof? Granite countertops in the kitchen? The list of information needed to determine the cost of a house goes on and on.


Same goes for a divorce. What do you and your spouse agree about? Anything? Do you have kids? How many? What are their ages? Do the children have special needs? Do both you and your spouse want custody? What kind of property do you have? What type of debt do you have? Is your spouse going to hire an attorney? Who is your spouse’s attorney? What issues does your spouse want to fight about? Is it everything? Or just one or two? As with a house, the list of information needed to determine how much your divorce is going to cost goes on and on. And as your divorce goes on, the estimate can go up or down depending on what happens. For example, if your spouse agrees to everything at first, the initial cost of your divorce could be relatively low. But what if sometime during the divorce process, your spouse discovers you have a new significant other. Now he wants to fight everything. With that change, the cost of your divorce just went up.


I always feel bad that I can’t give clients or potential clients a straight and clear answer regarding the total cost of their divorce. But to quote a solid price is unfair to you. I might be able to get in the ballpark, but if something in your case changes, that ballpark goes out the window.

Ami J. Decker
www.famlawtex.com