Divorce is Expensive!

[teko]

My daughter and her hubby are getting a divorce. In this state you gotta come up with 2600.00 minimum to get a divorce attorney. Is it like this all over?

[Barb135]

Some attorney's will do initial consultation for free; then maybe she can find one who will not demand the $ all at once.  I know some people who recently found an attorney who will work with them.

[allaboutmary]

See if she can have a consult with an attorney. The consult usually costs about $250. If her husband was the bread winner an attorney can file for some support until the divorce is final.  Also will be able to tell her if  they can make the husband pay her attorney fees. It would probably be worth it just to get some initial advise. When children are involved it's almost impossible to do it without legal advise.
PM me if you want the number of the pit bull that did my and my sisters divorces  :)

[teko]

Since she is not on state assistance, there is no help for her beyond a phone call giving her advice on how to procede or help filling out the papers. She checked into pro bono, nothing in the country and has no money to try to go it alone. I could help with some of the filing fees if need be, but she may end up representing herself. No one has money to give her and unfortunately when she borrowed in the past she never paid back, whch hurts her as well. There has been no custody order presented so maybe she needs to take the kids and run to her nearest welfare office? Not sure. Thanks for all the suggestions, keep em coming if you can think of anything else.

[jdwithhcv]

She should find the money somewhere.  With children (and consequently custody and support issues to be decided) if she goes into court unrepresented she will not do well.  By the way, $2600 is not particularly expensive and if you consider what is at stake here it is a small price to pay to protect her interests.

[adgal]

Not sure if it's the same there, but here you can go through mediation instead.  There is still a cost, but it is significantly less.  I believe you can do it without an attorney.  Also, you can often get legal help pro bono from the Universities from law students getting ready to graduate.  Sometimes this is actually better as these students are gung ho and will fight harder for you then a regular lawyer.  Lastly, I know a friend of mine got legal help from a clinic here (it was a child support issue).  It is staffed by lawyers who donate x amount of time if there are financial challenges.  Otherwise, it is really expensive, especially if there are disagreements over certain issues.  I'm sorry your daughter is going through this.  I wish her well.  

[teko]

How expensive is that? To file your own papers? I guess my daughters hubby filed, he has help from mom. She has to respond but cannot get help anywhere, and I just do not have that kind of cash to just give her. She was printing out paperwork off  the court website. They have no property and already live separately bot share the kids. He wants child support, her to foot half the bills and carry insurance on the kids. He was the principal breadwinner when they were together. Just an awful mess.

[allaboutmary]

Yeah, I paid 4 thousand and I'm a half hour away.   Magi filed hers without an attorney, but there was no dispute over property.