Divorce is strange as it can either be heartbreaking or invigorating, depending on your (now former) relationship. Different people can experience different things during a divorce, and it will likely have a profound impact on your life in one way or another. Regardless of why you’re getting a divorce, there is one constant that will always remain: the costs of divorce.
Remember that divorcing someone is a legal process, and this means solicitors and all sorts of other people have to get involved. It also means that you end up with various things to pay for depending on what side of the divorce you’re on, so let’s break them down.
Solicitor Fees
There’s not a lot worse than being put through a heartbreaking divorce and then having to pay a solicitor thousands of dollars just to make it legal. A divorce isn’t a court case where you can avoid legal fees by representing yourself; you literally need a solicitor to handle everything from document preparation to drafting legal agreements. It sucks, but that’s how they make their money – and the fees rise the longer your divorce proceedings go on.
Alimony & Child Support
If the two of you share children, then you will likely need to pay child support if you’re not the person who gets custody of the kids. In some cases, you may avoid child support if your earnings are significantly less than your former partner’s, even if they have custody and you do not.
And then there’s alimony, which applies to all types of divorce, regardless of whether there are kids involved. As explained here: https://www.ebrahimilaw.com/alimony/, alimony payments are made to your former spouse, but they’re not necessarily designed as child support. They’re usually necessary to help a former partner be financially stable if they earn far less money than you and were dependent on your earnings when you were a couple. It can either be temporary or permanent – you will probably want your solicitor to argue a case for it to be temporary, either lasting for a set amount of time or until your former partner reaches a particular milestone – such as getting a job or earning a salary.
Asset Division
Arguably the biggest cost associated with divorce is what happens to your assets. In a lot of cases, you may be forced to sell your home and split the money 50/50 with your former spouse. You may also need to sell or hand over other assets, depending on how much money they’re trying to get from you. In some bad divorces, it’s not uncommon for one partner to try to claim half of what the other partner currently owns.
In an amicable divorce, you both may agree to sell the home, split the money, and leave it at that. While this may still be annoying as you have to sell a house and find somewhere else to live, it’s far better than needing to hand over half of your net worth. The bottom line is that divorce is expensive, though it’s usually more expensive for one party than the other.
