Are You Making the Most of Your Time with Your Divorce Attorney?Divorce can be exhausting and expensive. Divorcing spouses squabble over who will get the dog, who will get the painting that hangs in the foyer, investment accounts, child support and spousal support. At the base of it, a divorce is nothing more than a business transaction, but because there is so much emotion involved, the desire on each part to get the best deal and the most favorable settlement can strain the proceedings.

Clients often ask about how they can minimize attorney fees as much as possible. At our Nashville office, we tell our clients that there are several things they can do to manage costs during divorce. Here are a few ways that people run up their attorney fees and what you can learn from them to keep yours at a manageable level:

  • Showing up unprepared. Before you come to your initial meeting with a divorce attorney, you should ask for a list of documents that you should bring with you so that your attorney can gain some familiarity about your cases. Gather all of the documents, and organize them so that your attorney and her staff do not have to sift through your piles looking for specific documents.
  • Constant fighting back and forth. If your spouse is not in agreement about the divorce, they might fight you on every point, use stalling and delay tactics to run up your lawyer’s fees and cause you frustration. They might send a flurry of correspondence to your attorney, which will also cost you more in legal fees. If you can, try to minimize the fighting between you and your spouse – or budget accordingly.
  • Seeing your divorce attorney as your BFF or therapist. You do not pay your divorce attorney so that you can cry on their shoulder about what your spouse and his girlfriend are up to now, or about how awful of a parent your spouse is to the children. If you find yourself spending more time in your divorce lawyer’s office complaining about your spouse than actually moving forward with your dissolution, consider finding a licensed therapist with whom you can talk. Remember: it is not that we do not care about you or your feelings. We do. But you hired us to do a job for you, and that is where you should want us to put our efforts.
  • Being unresponsive when your lawyer has a question or needs something from you. When your attorney calls with a question or requesting a document and you do not return their call, it costs you more money because it can delay the process. Be responsive and return your lawyer’s calls as soon as you possibly can and resolve things as quickly as possible.
  • Digging in your heels about child custody or any other contentious issue. If you are unable to come to an agreement between the two of you about child custody, the court will decide for you, and you are probably not going to like the decision. Fighting about child custody is often what spouses use to get back at one another. It is rarely productive and almost always has a negative impact on the child, and will add considerably to your attorney fees.

We understand that if you and your soon-to-be-former spouse were able to come together and agree on things all the time, you might not be at the point where you are getting divorced. However, agreeing to be less disagreeable you could save both of you time and money – and that might help sway your spouse to come around.

Keeping your focus on the end game of getting the divorce settled, rather than playing out emotional dramas, is the most effective way to keep your budget manageable. When you are organized, responsive and work with us, things will go much more easily and you can begin the process of moving on with your life.

Ending your marriage can be a tough decision. You want a Nashville divorce attorney you can trust, who will be upfront with you about the proceedings. That is exactly what you will find at our firm. To reserve an in-person or video consultation with an experienced Nashville divorce lawyer, please contact Miller Upshaw Family Law, PLLC.