The costs of divorce
We’ve all heard the horror stories of a bitter divorce. The emotional costs are heavy.
In some cases, the financial costs can be equally devastating. When couples envision their lawyers battling it out in court, the price tag is hefty. As many sadder-but-wiser couples discover, they spent far more money on fighting than they would have in a more collaborative approach. They also expended their own valuable time in a court process that can take years, not months in a collaborative situation. Finally, the highest cost is that with a litigated divorce, neither side of the couple got to decide the outcome, the judge did!
Compare the average costs of a divorce in the Hudson Valley:
- Mediation Couples hire neutral professionals to assist with negotiation 3,000–4,500
- Collaboration Each Party has own lawyer, couple has neutral Divorce Coach, Financial Advisor and Child Specialist 13,000–19,723
- Litigation Court makes a decision on the outcome 77,746
Because there are no court appearances and little paperwork, the total cost of hiring the Collaborative Divorce Team is usually less than the cost of hiring two lawyers to litigate a divorce. The actual cost depends on how long it takes to reach an agreement that is acceptable to both parties.
