How Can I Divorce As Cheaply As Possible?

By Karen Pritchard

Principal Associate

A main concern of our clients is usually the cost of the divorce and financial settlement.

We understand that the cost of living crisis is affecting many of our clients, and we do our best to keep legal costs as low as we can. This crisis is occurring at a time when you may already be worried about your future financial security as a result of divorce.

We do not charge you from the moment that you speak to us. We make sure that we have an initial telephone chat (up to about 30 minutes long) with all our clients, free of charge. We want you to feel able to approach us for a chat, without fear that “the meter is running”.

We will try to fully answer your queries in that chat. However, often family situations are complicated and detailed, and cannot be properly answered during that chat. If that is the case, we offer a first meeting for a fixed fee of £150 + VAT.

At that meeting, we will obtain full details about your situation, and advise you on your options as well as the likely cost. We will also try to identify ways that you can keep your costs down.

Here are some ways that legal fees can be kept as low as possible:

  1. Take advice early on. This will help to ensure that the separation is dealt with in a constructive and sensible way from the outset, and avoid problems which may be more expensive to rectify in future;
  2. Try to be as amicable as possible. This does not mean that you need to be good friends with your ex, but in our experience, costs are unnecessarily incurred when couples spend time raising issues that do not progress their case and are just to “point score”.
  3. Listen to the legal advice. You do not have to accept our advice, but our advice will be based on many years’ experience and legal knowledge, tailored to your situation. We work with you to ensure the best outcome for you and your family.
  4. Provide all requested information and documents by the date requested. Try to make sure that you provide everything that we ask for. This will ensure that your case is progressed in a timely and cost-efficient way.
  5. Avoid online divorce companies that offer cheap divorces or financial court orders. As there is usually very little or no legal advice, there is a real risk that any financial losses will be greater than what you save on legal fees. For example, we often find that individuals do not receive adequate advice about tax consequences of their settlement, and pensions are often completely overlooked.
  6. Agree what you can with your ex. Mediation is a great way to have discussions with your ex with the benefit of an expert to help you to have constructive discussions.

For more information and to find out how we can help you, please contact us on 0345 646 0406 or fill in our online enquiry form and a member of our Team will be in touch.