We believe that our clients should know up front, before representation begins, what their case will cost. We work with each client to determine what services are needed and set a price for those services. No one should pay for services they don’t need and so the Collaborative Divorce Center offers several options if you don’t want or cannot afford full representation, but just need a little help, advice, coaching, or document review.
To provide the best service at the best price, we use flat fees, value billing, and fee caps. We do not bill by the hour unless the client demands it. Here’s why:
Each family is unique and each matter is unique. Pam will spend time with you to fully understand your situation and the services that you need and will quote you a price for those services.
With collaborative divorce, you and your spouse agree to work with a collaborative team outside of court. You won’t pay for the paper chase of discovery, depositions, and motions that drive up the cost in a more adversarial proceeding.
You and your spouse have agreed on how to divide your assets and liabilities and if there are children on a timesharing schedule and on parental responsibility.
You and your spouse have not agreed on the terms of your divorce and litigation is required to resolve how to divide assets and liabilities or timesharing and parental responsibility.
Litigation is unpredictable and time-consuming. The amount of work required can be greatly affected by your spouse’s counsel and things over which we have no control. For that reason, it is much more difficult to determine the cost of a contested matter.
For these reasons, we cannot quote a total flat fee for litigation. We will, however, use flat fees and fee caps for those portions of the litigation that we can. Only adversarial hearings will be billed by the hour.