One element of divorce proceedings which often has clients worriedly calling their divorce lawyer is when the issue of who will pay the legal fees for the process and proceedings. One concern that often gets raised is that one spouse has been threatened by the other that they will be responsible for paying not only their own legal fees but those of their ex-partner.
Family lawyers advise that this threat can come from either side of the marriage, so on occasion, it will be the wife threatening her husband, but it can also come from the husband too, whereby he tells his wife that she will be left with the bill. We should point out right away that in reality, unless other factors are in play, the likelihood of costs being awarded, whereby one party to the divorce pays them all, is slim.
To put some numbers on that, a recent legal survey found that of all divorce cases, in less than 20% of them, a claim was made by one spouse that their ex-partner should be liable for the legal fees. In addition, looking at all divorce cases in the Family Court, a mere 2% saw all the legal costs awarded to one of the spouses.
Whilst it may be rare, your ex-partner may claim legal costs, so you should be prepared for it, just in case. Bear in mind your ex-partner has every right to make such a claim, and depending on how you have behaved in terms of cooperating about the divorce process, is how any court will determine whether to grant that claim or not.
Conversely, instead of challenging a cost order made by your ex-partner, you might believe you should make a cost order against them. If they have proved to be uncooperative and even to the extent of being intrusive about the divorce, such as claim may be justified, albeit there is no guarantee it will be successful.
There are some specific actions, and some might say, tactics, which, if your ex-partner follows them, could be grounds for you making a claim against them for the payment of your legal fees. These include:
- Proving inaccurate or incomplete disclosure of information
- Refusing to provide information when it has been requested
- Making petty requests for information from you
- Being unprepared for negotiation appointments
- Refusing to appear at court or for negotiation meetings
- Breaching a court order
- Refusing to accept a reasonable offer for settlement
Obviously, if you are cooperating with regard to all of these, it means you will be incurring legal fees payable to your divorce lawyers and the courts. If your ex-partner is delaying, stalling or being deliberately obstructive, it means those fees are going to be greater than they would have been otherwise.
Additional phone calls, letters, appointments, plus all the additional work that your lawyers and their team will be doing on your behalf, can soon mount up, especially if they have to do more of it due to the deliberate actions of your ex-partner.
When considering whether to grant court costs, it will weigh up a number of factors, including the relevant financial positions, what offers have been made, and the conduct of each of the parties. If it does grant costs, it may not necessarily order 100% of the fees to be payable, and instead, order that a percentage of them are met.
