Diaries
Diary 3: Costs of Divorce
Costs of Divorce
Anecdotally there is an embedded bias with any litigator, family lawyers included. They are paid and continued to get paid so long as they are working on a file. There is therefore the implicit disincentive to resolve the matter, as the longer the dispute or fight lasts, the longer they will get paid. It is counter intuitive. I left a domestic violence marriage which left me, for a short time, homeless, jobless, and without money. My spouse was a well-known member of the community and have significant funds. Notwithstanding the circumstances that led to the end of our marriage, I spent $300,000 over the course of 5 years incurring significant debt to simply fund litigation. I came out of the marriage without support, without court ordered custody (I do have “de facto” custody). He still remains in our marital home, and owns our other properties. The money I spent brought no resolution and I could not afford to go to trial to try to get some form of equality or equity. I am an educated woman who does understand the law, and yet the traditional process absolutely failed me and left me handcuffed to continued participation.
In too many divorces there is a power imbalance between the spouses, be it financial, stature, ability to provide or work. The traditional litigation process does not seem mindful of this. Often one or both spouses cannot continue to pay for a lawyer and fund the fight and any funds to divide go to legal fees. It can take upwards of 3 years to book a trial in Alberta, 2 years for a “special” or mini half-day trial. Waiting for trial forces everyone into a state of limbo. Assets may be frozen, custody and support unresolved. Too often the fees and eventual division of assets becomes more likely a division of debt, and at times a bankruptcy by one or both parties. An alternative dispute resolution model could expedite this process and hopefully mitigate the financial drain.
A male colleague of mine, after spending a substantial amount of money on legal fees with two different lawyers, agreed to a fixed fee with his third lawyer. The fixed fee was in excess of $100,000. The day before the trial to finalize support and division of assets (custody was not in dispute), the lawyer advised him that without an additional $100,000 he could not possibly go to trial as the matter was “complicated”. The litigation process took 7 years to resolve during which time all of his assets had been frozen. The total legal fees spent by my colleague was over $1 Million. Had my colleague and his spouse taken a different course, out of court, all matters could have been resolved at a fraction of the cost and time.
