16 July,2012 11:55 AM IST | | ANI
According to mediation expert Peter Sheehy, couples are often not aware of the costs of a court battle.
"All the asset pools are down, real estate is down or static," a news website quoted Sheehy as saying.
"An 800,000-dollar pool may be reduced by 100,000 dollars.
"Why would you spend 200,000 dollars on legal fees when the asset pool is only worth 800,000 dollars?" he said.
Research has shown that it costs 300-400 dollars an hour for a lawyer and an expert witness, such as accountants and property valuers, and 4000-5000 dollars per day for a barrister, which includes fees to read legal documents, a major newspaper reported.
In the case of custody disputes, a family report will set you back 3000 dollars per couple and then expect to pay 300 dollars an hour for the author to testify at a half-day trial.
Starting from stage one, the divorce application costs 577 dollars, daily hearing fee costs 638 dollars, 300-400 dollars per hour Lawyers fees, meditation stage costs 5000-6000 dollars and awaiting trial date costs 20,000-30,000 dollars.
In the end comes the trial, which costs 4000-5000 dollars per day Barrister, 300-400 dollars per hour Witness expenses, 3000 dollars per couple, 300-400 dollars for family report.
All these expenses sum up to a total of 200,000 for the divorce.
