Keep Costs Down in Your Divorce

Obtaining a divorce in Florida isn’t cheap. Court costs, attorneys’ fees, and even the additional expense of living in a separate household can create a substantial financial burden.  Yet divorce doesn’t have to be prohibitively expensive either, especially if you don’t make it more costly than it needs to be. Avoid making your divorce unnecessarily expensive by keeping the following guidelines in mind.

Choose your battles carefully

When you’ve reached the level of frustration and discord with your spouse that precedes filing for divorce, you may feel tempted to fight your spouse on every request out of a desire to “win” the divorce or to exact some revenge. Alternately, your spouse may be the one who has been overwhelmed with a desire to block every one of your requests regarding the division of your property or custodial time. Decide in advance which issues are most important to you, such as the holidays you most want to spend with your children, or items of particularly high sentimental value you’d like to keep, and save your fight for the things that really matter.

Settle what issues you can up front

It will never be less costly to agree to terms of your divorce and division of property than during the period prior to filing for divorce. Try to work out as much as you can before going to court, where disputes will be much costlier and more time-consuming to resolve. This might be a good stage to consider hiring an attorney to serve as an informal mediator as you work out a settlement agreement for your divorce.

Limit the amount of judicial intervention you seek

After you’ve obtained a divorce, conflicts will inevitably arise regarding the payment of child or spousal support, or compliance with existing court orders. Rather than returning to court each time an issue like this arises, incurring the accompanying court costs and attorneys’ fees, attempt to first negotiate these disputes with your former spouse informally.

If you are searching for compassionate and knowledgeable assistance in Florida with filing for divorce or dividing custody of your children, contact family law attorney Crystal Collins Spencer for a consultation, in Pensacola at 850-912-8080, Sandestin at 850-424-6683, and Ft. Walton Beach at 850-200-4652.