With respect to the Family Law Cases, these cases involve a lot of work in the early part of the case.  One major things that must be accomplished, within 42 days of serving the other side with the Petition and Summons, is to put together the financial disclosures.

This consists of putting together a Sworn Financial Statement, with accompanying hard copies of various account statements, tax returns, earnings statements, and retirement, real-estate and insurance documents, and so on; to be  provided to the other side.

This is a very tedious and time consuming process for the client to put together.  In my office, Monique Mountain will assist you in putting together what we call these financial disclosures, the Rule 16.2 Disclosures.  Monique has developed a package that she will initially send out to you, with forms and detailed instructions how to go about putting together all this information in time efficient manner.

Monique will draft the Sworn Financial Statement once we receive the necessary information from you, and she will aid you in assembling the other hard copies called for by Rule 16.2.  Monique bills me at $38.00 per hour for her time, and I bill you $38.00 per hour for her time.  I do not mark Monique’s time up.  This will save you hundreds, if not several thousands of dollars, in getting the Rule 16.2 Disclosures in final form; so that they can be e-filed and served on the other side.  My time is billed at $175.00 per hour, which is under market, considering the experience that I have.

Monique, accompanying me, will also attend any mediation session that is scheduled, to try to resolve the disputes and differences between the parties with the help of a trained mediator.  Monique will create a spread sheet as to how you, the client and the party in the case,  want the assets and debts divided.  Then, at mediation, Monique will have her laptop, to make any changes to the spread sheet as the mediation and the negotiation between the Petitioner and the Respondent progresses.

The idea is to try to make the legal services more affordable to you, and more effective with this team approach.  This is for reason that when you are paying someone on an hourly basis, the time and the attorney’s fees can start to add up.  On these cases, I want to do the work that is necessary to protect your rights and obtain a good result for you, without making the case more complicated, and  more expensive, than it needs to be.

To say this another way, I am very conscious of the expense  that is involved in hiring a lawyer to get a divorce.  In light of that, I try to be economical in the work I do on your case, while doing the work that is necessary to obtain the best possible result for you.

Of course, every case is different, and ultimately the amount of fees you incur depends on things like the complexity of the issues, the approach of the other side in being open to trying to settle the case, and so on.