How much did your attorney cost? Is this normal...

BeachBlondie456

I had a consultation with an attorney who is asking for a $5000 retainer. He says this will cover all the initial filing and hearings. He was not sure if it would be more than that because it depends on whether or not H fights anything. If it matters, we have one baby, H cheated, and I'll be going for emergency temporary custody, alimony and child support. He charges 250 an hour. Is this normal? What did you pay? Anything else I abound know? Thanks!

DarthNBJenni

Yes, it is normal to pay a high retainer. Mine was around $2500, but I'm in an area that's LCOL. Think of it as a bank balance, and his fees are deducted from it.

supermansmommy

The retainer quotes I recieved ranged from $1k-$5k with $200-$300 as the per hour rate. I went with the atty I felt more comfortable and in sync with and her retainer fell in the middle at $2500. My step father is an attorney and he said that a higher retainer doesn't always mean a better attorney and there are some pros to having a lower retainer (the main one being if you have to fire the atty and go with someone else, you're not out a huge sum of money).

SemperFiPurpleHeart

Yes. My retainer fee was the same as well but I told them I could only do like $4K and she let me make 2 more payments over 2 more months while the divorce was going on. You may be able to see if they can work with you.

BeachBlondie456

What did you ladies end up paying TOTAL for your whole divorce?

timewilltell

The lawyer I talked to last week was a $1400 retainer and $170 an hour. He said he would estimate $3-4000 when all is said and done.

I'm still doing my research and want at least one more opinion before starting the whole process.

kayladay

My whole divorce was $850!

supermansmommy

I'm not sure what mine will come in at as I just filed last week. I've heard there are ways you can help keep costs down (doing all of the copying and errand running yourself, etc), so definitely speak with your atty about other ways you can help. In most situations (certainly most posted about here), divorces aren't going to be huge moneymakers for attorneys. They make their $ with high volume or by dragging their feet. So stay on top of them and be efficient. Know your questions before you go in for meetings and take on whatever you can in terms of those other little things.

kmartinez80

My lawyer's retainer was $3500, though she's recently increased it to 5k (I had to re-retain her after the divorce was finalized due to my XH going back to file more stuff). The cost of just my divorce was $50k (divorce took just around a year to finalize).

warriormomerin

All total, mine was around $150K. That's including the bankruptcy, custody and names changes for DD & DS, but not the criminal trial. He ended up on the hook for another $25,000 for that, but I'm exempt from it. Thanks to Legal Aid and some wonderful attorney's willing to work pro bono on all my stuff, I only spent about $500 out of pocket.