In general, it is thought that a divorce in Ireland would cost anything ranging from €10,000 to €20,000 depending on the complexity of the case. We completely understand the difficulty the general public has in comprehending how these fees are justified. We will attempt to justify it by simply stating that family law doesn’t exist in a vacuum apart from other areas of law. We draw on the same pool of talent for Solicitors/ Legal Executives, etc., like all other areas of law and Irish society. The reality is that a newly qualified solicitor can earn €70,000 because of the location of Dublin being the European home of the majority of some of the world’s biggest companies. As well as the fact that Dublin is an expensive place to run a business in. Solicitors are not exempt from electricity, etc. Very simply put, family law is competing with solicitors who are being paid by government/huge companies who can easily afford to pay €450-€550 per hour. These solicitors’ firms can hence easily pay solicitors these top wages. Therefore, it is in those circumstances that these solicitors’ fees can appear high to the customers.
We at the Family Practice recognise these high costs of family law solicitors in Ireland and have attempted to manage these costs by identifying each and every piece of work needed to complete your case and putting a price on this work. This led to us developing a costs calculator which provided the customer with an estimate of their potential legal costs based on knowing certain aspects of their case. The key is that we only get paid for precisely what work we do. If you or your spouse don’t have a pension, then this removes a lot of the technical boring legal work required and therefore reduces the price. Similarly, if you or your partner is not self-employed then the work involved in investigating the financial position is greatly reduced.
Who Pays for a Divorce in Ireland?
In Ireland, each person pays for their own legal representation in a Divorce. This is in contrast to other areas of law, where the winner of the case gets the benefit of their legal costs paid by the losing side. In family law, as everybody knows there is no winner and the rule is that unless exceptional lack of engagement by one side, each person pays their own costs. This can have unfair consequences in circumstances where one party to the marriage has greater financial resources and can engage in higher-quality legal representation.
How is the Cost of a Divorce Calculated?
This attempt at placing a price on each part of the case is contrary to the consensus among solicitors in Ireland. When asked how much a case will cost, most will say something like “how long is a piece of string?”. The issue is that I entirely identify with this thought process as it is quite difficult to accurately predict how much a Divorce costs in Ireland at the outset as there are many variables that can arise.
However, that doesn’t mean we cannot try. After all, tenders are provided for multi-billion euro projects which encompass thousands of potential variations so why can we not provide a tender for a simple divorce? I would liken attempting to price a legal project as not being too dissimilar to a mechanic pricing a broken-down car. From the customer’s point of view, because we know nothing about cars, we have no strength in bargaining and ultimately feel we can be easily ripped off. If the mechanic says that the engine has blown and will cost €7K to repair, I hope I can trust the mechanic but I have no idea or not if the engine is blown. From the mechanic’s point of view, he is aware of this lack of trust dynamic and has a menu list of jobs on cars that he has available. For example, ‘fix carburetor’ – €500 labour, oil change €70. However, he doesn’t know precisely what the problem will be before he starts, so can only give a guide. If halfway through an unexpected problem appears with the engine, then he has to revert to the customer and update them and inform them of the potential new price for the new amount of work beyond the original scope. Hence the unhappiness between mechanic and customer.
So to take this tortuous analogy, in a Divorce case in Ireland there will be certain items on a menu of costs. Like the mechanic, each item is valued by the time that it takes. As an example, it usually requires a 1.5 – 2 hour meeting with a solicitor to take instructions to prepare a brief for a Barrister to create an originating document to obtain a divorce. On our menu, this would be 2x 250= €500. Other documents will be required and legal Executives’ time will be expended as the case progresses. I will not go through each menu item but an experienced divorce solicitor from their records has a reasonably accurate knowledge of what work will be involved in a divorce and hence what the price will be. So why doesn’t everyone just give your menu and be upfront about it? The reason is that like the mechanic we don’t want to be tied to this price as we cannot predict the likelihood of variations arising. What are these variations?
1. Children in the Divorce
The first most obvious variations are any complications around children in a Divorce. This can be that reports from experts may be needed and different court appearances may be needed. This can range from applications to court for interim maintenance for the spouse or children for the time until the case is heard, or any other application concerning the welfare of the children. This can cost between a solicitor’s and a barrister’s time potentially €2,000.
2. Motions to Compel
The second variation can be lumped together in a single catch-all phrase “motions to compel”. What is a motion? A motion is an application to the court to make the other side do something. It’s that simple. In a utopia, it would be very simple to price Divorces as we could accurately say from our hourly rate and menu of work what the case will cost. This utopia is not the real world where people do not respond or cooperate with the court process as they should. As an example, some people avoid service of the proceedings. This requires an expense of a summons server to physically serve the other side. If the person does not enter an appearance ie engage with the process, a motion for judgment in default of appearance is required. This requires legal documentation to be prepared showing that the other spouse has been served and can cost approximately €1,500 -€2,000. In the majority of cases, this forces the other party to enter their appearance and engage with the process. The difficulty is that it is very rare for a court to award the other side the costs of having to bring this application. In plain English, this means that you have to pay for your ex-spouse not engaging with the process. Their next step is they are required to lodge their defence to your civil bill (originating Document). If they do not do this within the prescribed time, you guessed it, we are required to bring a motion. This will cost approximately the same amount of money ie €1,500 -€2,000.
3. Affidavit of Means
This then brings us to another expensive variable which is whether you or your spouse engage with the vouching or verifying with paperwork whatever they have sworn to in their affidavit of means. In plain English, each party sets out what assets they have, their income, and outgoings. During the proceedings, each party will be asked to provide the paperwork to back up e.g their income, their assets, their bank statements. These statements and other materials are forensically reviewed by each solicitor and questions are asked like: Do you receive payments every month in your account but you list your income as only from your P60 job or you listed only 2 accounts but we see constant references in your account to revolut. Again if the other side does not provide evidence as you require, then the case has to be brought to court to make the other side provide this documentation. It would not be great representation to allow a client to settle their case on the basis of incomplete knowledge of your spouse’s financial position. Unfortunately, this can add a huge amount of time and court appearances which costs the customer between barrister and solicitor up to €2,500. Where one of the spouses in a marriage is self-employed then it can be almost certain that a court appearance (called case progression) with regard to vouching will be required but in a more standard income couple it can be more difficult to predict whether the other spouse will “do their homework properly and on time”. When one party is self-employed there is potentially a cost of engaging the services of a forensic accountant. We find it helpful to explain these potential costs to our clients to make it clear what potential surprise costs could arise. It also has the effect of focusing our own clients on their own obligations in providing everything needed in a timely manner as they can see that not doing so just simply costs them more money.
4. Settlement or Family Court
The last variation which has a big effect on the price is whether the parties are agreeable to settling the case or whether the case has to be decided in the courts by a judge. There is a big premium on agreeing your case as the saying that “lawyers are most expensive when they are on their feet in court” is very accurate. Every case generally has a settlement meeting where each side meets and attempts to thrash out a deal that is agreeable to both parties. This item is on the standard menu of costs in a divorce case. It is generally felt above and beyond the price that it is better to agree to a compromise that you can live with than having conditions imposed upon you that you will find extremely difficult. This is without mentioning the emotional stress of giving evidence and the overall toll and worry of an adversarial family court hearing. If either you or your spouse cannot agree on a compromise then the volume of work and costs increases markedly. The cost of a solicitor and Barrister to fight a case can cost €2,500 -€3,000 for the day. The case would not normally but could extend to another day. This potential cost difference should be factored in by each client when making the decision not to compromise. It always surprises me which clients will settle and which will not.
Finding the Right Divorce Process for You
I sympathise with customers who are shopping around for a divorce solicitor and sometimes it can most definitely appear onerously expensive. I understand why people attempt to solve this by doing it themselves. Where there are any kind of assets involved I would not advise this. I have previously written about this and would direct you to this article by Conor Pope in the Irish Times.
Finding a solicitor is not dissimilar to shopping for anything else that you know nothing about like a mechanic or financial planner. You might start by looking at Citizen’s Advice for the basic information. What you are looking for in these service providers is the same as in a divorce solicitor: trust. Do you trust that they will do the work that you are paying them for? Do you trust that they will only charge you for the work that they perform and not exploit your lack of knowledge? Do you trust that they are being as upfront and transparent about what the estimate of costs is and why they are like this? Are they advising you clearly about the potential extra costs which may or may not occur which can increase the price? If you find such a relationship of trust, I would suggest you engage that person. Divorce is most definitely expensive but in my experience, people are happy to pay for a service when they trust that they are paying the standard fee for the work involved in their case.
If you want to find out more please contact our Family Law office in Dublin. Some solicitors understandably require payment upfront of their fees as they feel that they will have to pay staff, outgoings, etc., all while the case is ongoing, and don’t wish to take any risk in not being paid.
We were conscious that, at such a difficult time in clients’ lives, people find it hard to pay huge fees all at once. So we have developed a stage payment system, which means that we only ask for payment in advance as we reach certain milestones in a client’s case.
