How Much Divorce Cost in Virginia

American Jurisprudence does not generally support the idea of one party paying the lawyer fees of the other party. Courts do not frequently award lawyer fees at the beginning of a divorce case in Virginia. In the event a divorce has been awarded on fault basis and the court finds one person is more accountable for the divorce, then the court is more likely to award some attorney’s fees to the innocent spouse in Virginia.

In Northern Virginia, the typical hourly rate for an experienced divorce lawyer is approximately $250 to $650. The fewer issues on your proverbial divorce table, the fewer hours your lawyer will require to assist you and the lower your costs will be. Choose carefully the issues you intend to “take to the mat”; consider when to use your divorce attorney in Virginia and when to simply play nice. Pause and redirect for a moment before ending communications to your spouse with a negative comment or insult.

Most experienced Virginia divorce lawyers do not work on credit, so you will usually have to be able to pay your counsel an initial retainer fee upfront. An experienced dissolution of marriage attorney will tell you how much money he or she needs as an initial deposit to take your case after you have discussed the facts of your case and your particular needs with them.

The divorce attorney will hold your initial deposit in trust for you in their trust account and deduct their charges from your initial deposit as they earn them and the case goes along. Provisional charges are not allowed in divorce cases. Depending on your case, you may be able to get a flat fee for your divorce case in Virginia.

As a general rule, you cannot force your spouse to pay for your divorce in Virginia. If your spouse does not willingly give you money for your divorce, the only other way to force him to pay is to have a judge issue a court order. However, judges will usually only do this in extreme situations where the family finances are so one-sided that it would be completely partial for one side to have an attorney and the other to go without.

In general, a final judgment in a dissolution of marriage does not necessarily mean that a dependent spouse will be awarded attorney’s fees in Virginia. Typically, the ability to recover attorney’s fees is left to the choice of the court in which the divorce was made final. In some states, statutes may award attorney’s fees whether or not judgment was entered on behalf of the spouse or not.

There is no way to tell exactly how much your divorce will cost because so much of the cost is determined by what your spouse does and how often you have to go to court. Cases which settle are generally less costly than cases that must be litigated in court. If you are able to handle your dissolution of marriage case on a flat fee, then you can be certain you know how much it will cost you to have your divorce case finished upfront.

If you need the help of a divorce lawyer in Virginia who understands the costs involved with a dissolution of a marriage in Fairfax, City of Fairfax, Prince William (Manassas), Fauquier (Warrenton), Loudoun (Leesburg), Caroline, Stafford, Spotsylvania (Fredericksburg), Chesterfield, Henrico, Arlington, Richmond, Alexandria, call our law firm immediately for help and speak to a lawyer about your options.

The SRIS Law Group can help you best possible outcome based on the facts of your case. If you wish to consult an SRIS Law Group, P.C. divorce attorney in Virginia who understands the costs involved with a dissolution of a marriage, call us at 855-696-3348. B

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