It is unfortunate when someone in a troubled marriage feels unable to take steps toward a legal resolution because of lack of funds to pay attorneys’ fees.

They understand the importance of hiring a lawyer for a divorce to help ensure equitable division of retirement funds, clarify business ownership post-divorce, and negotiate the most workable solutions for child custody and visitation. At the same time, these people in need of legal counsel often find the financial realities of divorce daunting.

Complex divorce issues, high-asset divorces and family situations where child endangerment is in question are all situations where most people realize that it is necessary to hire an attorney. Others wonder if they can handle their divorces without lawyers. This is rarely advisable.

Strategies to Help You Afford Legal Help

We at Lasiter & Jackson understand our clients’ financial concerns, and we work to find ways to help clients in need of advocacy in divorce despite financial difficulties. Examples of strategies that help some of our clients cope with attorneys’ fees in divorce proceedings include the following:

• Where there is disparity of income, “[the] court . . . may order a party to pay a reasonable amount to the other party for the costs and expenses” of divorce proceedings. (Source: Arizona Statute 25-324).
• We help clients devise strategies about ways to cover attorneys’ fees — for example, through proceedings from selling all or part of a business when dividing a business in a divorce.
• For clients who prefer to do some or all of the work of a divorce themselves, we offer low-cost legal services aimed at just those pieces of the whole that a lawyer needs to handle.
• When the spouse who is our client has significantly less income and fewer assets than the other spouse, and the other person is causing unnecessary legal expenses through frivolous legal motions and so on, we can take action to put a stop to these practices and hold the other spouse financially responsible.
• We offer payment plans for clients who need to space out the cost of a divorce over time.

Consultations Available at Your Convenience

Lasiter & Jackson provide understanding and compassion for the delicate issues associated with divorce and family law. We are committed to obtaining positive results for each of our clients, and we strive to provide qualified case assessment at a reasonable cost.

Contact an Arizona divorce attorney at our law offices in Phoenix to discuss attorneys’ fees and how to pay for your divorce or other family law services.