Watching how divorce is played out through the courts is eye opening. Below are some events that I have witnessed when two people choose the path of divorce over mediation.
If you and your child’s other parent cannot work things out and go to court, the court often appoints a lawyer to express your kid’s wishes. In a case in Brooklyn, Mary E. v. Usher E., the fees that the parents had to pay for someone else to tell them what their kids wanted was $40,000.
This case was, from my view, terribly different than most cases. The lawyer for the kids must have been compelled to perform an enormous amount of work. If the parents had worked things out, that $40,000 could likely have gone to better use.
A very prominent Long Island law firm, one that is high on the Google search, sued its client for $52,700 for fees, collection costs and interest. The client was told that the divorce would cost about $5,000.
If the couple had worked things out themselves, with or without a mediator, there never would have been a bill, nor any lawsuit, for tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees.
I would appreciate comments to this article. If you are willing to share your experiences or comments, please email them to me for publication at [email protected].
While as a lawyer, I earn more money when people litigate than I do when people reach resolutions, as a human being…yes, lawyers are human beings, too, my values and my efforts to help people lead me to the fol-lowing conclusion: Reach a settlement.
Source: Cory J. Rosenbaum, P.C., a professional corpora-tion for the practice of injury, employment and matrimo-nial law. For more information or to schedule a consult-tion, call 212-732-7922 (NYC office) or 516-670-9332 (Uniondale office), or visit CoryRosenbaum.com, PreDivorceLaw.com and NonToxicDivorce.com.
