The average cost of a Maryland divorce is between $11,000 and $15,000 per person. However, more complicated “contested” divorces that require trial can be significantly more expensive (average between $20,000 and $30,000) while uncontested divorces can be significantly less money (average between $5,000 and $10,000). Ultimately, it is important to know the things that can make your Maryland divorce more expensive.
1) Hiring a “Pitbull” Attorney – these are the attorneys that are known in the legal community as being aggressive and litigious. If the attorney that you’ve hired is known to file extraneous motions, the attorney working on the other side will likely expect their fees to be high as well. The attorney that you hire will have a big impact on how much your divorce costs.
2) Having Unrealistic Expectations – If you are entering the divorce process and have not seen your children in years and are expecting to gain shared custody or if you are making significantly more money than your spouse and do not expect to pay alimony, these unrealistic expectations will make your divorce more expensive because your attorney will have to work twice as hard to achieve your goal.
3) Not Being Willing To Compromise – If you are not willing to compromise in the divorce process, there will be more meetings between counsel and email or documents exchanges over a longer period of time. Additional motions will also need to be filed, meaning you will likely end up having more hearings.
4) Trying To Get Revenge – Court is not intended to be a place where you can go to get revenge on your spouse. If you enter the divorce process with the mindset to “may them pay” for what they may have done to you or for how the relationship ended, you will end up with an expensive result battling it out with them in court and will likely be disappointed with the final result.
Jacobson Family Law is committed to keeping the drama and unnecessary costs out of divorce and other family law conflicts and can help you avoid the things that can make your Maryland divorce more expensive. If you do not want an expensive divorce, contact us at 443-741-1147 or schedule a consultation here to discuss how we can help you keep your divorce expenses reasonable.
