How Much Is Your Case Going to Cost?

Hi, I'm Dave Ward with the Ward Law Firm and a question that I'm frequently asked when I'm sitting down with people is, "How much is my case going to cost?" And unfortunately there's not really a good answer to that question because every case is different and every case is unique. There are two types of cases we handle at the Ward Law Firm that are done on a flat fee basis, those are step-parent adoptions and TPO cases where somebody is either pursuing or defending against having a temporary protective order issued. Most other cases though, like all family law attorneys, we handle those on an hourly basis. In other words, we get paid for the time that we spend pursuing things in the case.

The reason for this is because frequently when we're sitting down with a new client we don't know what we're necessarily getting into because we've met our client, we know how reasonable our client is and how likely they are to be reasonable throughout the process, but we have no idea how the other side is going to react. Some sides are very easy to work with, they're less confrontational and that's wonderful. When that happens it means it takes less time and a lot of times that results in a final bill that is far lower than dealing with somebody who thinks that it's the beginning of world war three and wants to treat the litigation process like that.

So, it really unfortunately is an impossible question to answer when people are trying to find that out because there's just not a really solid answer. But things that you can consider in trying to estimate what yours might be would be things like how well you have worked with the other party up until this point. That is usually the biggest driving factor in determining whether or not things are are going to be relatively inexpensive versus whether or not things are looking like they're going to be on the higher end of the scale. So, if you have any other questions about costs related to the litigation process or anything else related to your case give us a call. I'm Dave Ward with the Ward Law Firm and we help parents protect those things that are most important.