How Much Will A Dvorce Cost Me- In Scotland
Any client asking a lawyer how much his or her divorce will cost is likely to be met with the not entirely helpful response 'how long is a piece of string?' This article is intended to give some general help with understanding what cost variables are in a divorce case. Although in many cases it isn't possible to predict in advance what the final cost of a divorce will be, it ought with a bit of analysis to be possible to provide a very, very rough estimate. Certain variables in divorce are known in advance. For example in any contested divorce, the court will fix a timetable which stipulates periods for lodging and exchanging of various documents including any defence, and the fixing of what is called an options hearing. It is at the options hearing the sheriff will assess the parties' readiness to proceed with the case to a final hearing, called a proof. There are also various fees which require to be paid to the court, and the lawyer will know what these will be. All of this is reasonably standard. One major variable is of course the basis on which your lawyer chooses to charge for the work they do. Lawyers are now required to send clients a letter setting out their standard terms and conditions which will include their charging rates. By comparison, under legal aid, the Legal Aid Board will pay a fixed fee to a lawyer for all work done up to a certain stage of a case. The client may be able to come to an arrangement with their lawyer for a fixed fee on a similar basis. However, many, if not most lawyers, dealing with private clients would probably prefer to charge on a strict 'time and line' basis. That means they would expect to be paid for each item of work done - writing a letter, reviewing a document, meeting with a client, phoning the client or the opposing lawyer - and so on. The disadvantage of that kind of arrangement is that you the client have little control over the bill for your case. The client therefore needs to establish what exactly is the basis on which they'll be charged for their lawyer's work. You can of course help yourself - and I encourage all my clients to do this where this kind of arrangement operates - by not making too many calls to your lawyer or keeping meetings to the minimum absolutely necessary. It also helps to keep meetings as short and as focused as possible. All of that can be done with good preparation. I also encourage my own clients to correspond with me where possible by e-mail as I would not generally charge at least for reviewing an incoming e-mail unless it was extremely long. What the client can't control of course is the activity of their spouse's lawyer who may be firing off multi-page letters at a time - for review of all of which your own lawyer would be entitled to charge - and/or court motions (applications for interim orders.) Your lawyer then of course needs to speak to you about these and then act on your instructions. The other variable that is difficult to predict unfortunately is incidental applications to the court called motions. These are applications to the court for immediate orders whether in relation to financial issues or the children of the marriage. If a motion is opposed, it results in a hearing having to be fixed, which obvious results in increased cost. I've dealt with some cases where I personally have had to make a very large number of motions for the client. In other cases, the other side might have a habit of making motions to the court. When it comes to preparing for the proof, the costs can unfortunately escalate quite considerably especially if you're the Pursuer in the action. That's because, as the Pursuer, you're responsible for arranging and paying for a shorthand writer to take down the evidence. Shorthand writers charge £50 per day just as a reservation fee. The cost for attending the proof runs into several hundred pounds per day, additionally, whether or not the notes are actually typed up. If the notes do have to be typed up, then the costs escalate massively. The cost of preparing typed notes of evidence is very high, and can run into thousands, depending on the length of the proof. It is also likely that in the run up to the proof, further motions to the court may have to be made. Additionally witnesses will have to be cited and even before then they have to be interviewed, statements taken from them, and prepped for proof. Obviously, that doesn't mean being coached. It is though entirely permissible, and frankly advisable, to make sure a witness knows as far as possible what areas they'll be asked to cover when giving evidence and also how to present in court. For example, witnesses should be told to keep their answers short, to keep their cool, to dress appropriately, not to answer questions they don't know the answers to - and so on. It's important fo