Whether you save up for big vacations or do budget road trips, I’m guessing you don't “wing it.” You likely don’t use your whole travel budget for travel tickets without factoring in food, a place to stay and return ticket. You ensure you don’t get stranded.

Approach your case the same way so you don’t get “stranded” in court.

I’m not saying your case will be the “fun-filled family adventure” you’ll want to remember with pictures, souvenirs or a scrap book. I AM saying you should budget it like it was.

Here’s How You Risk Being Stranded:

When you hire a lawyer, you’ll likely sign a contract (or “retainer agreement”).

In most, the lawyer agrees to  handle all parts of your case. You’ll probably agree to pay all invoices fully and on time. It’s likely you will be asked to “acknowledge” that if you don’t pay your bill on time, your lawyer could:

• stop representing you (even if your case isn’t done since lawyers don’t tend to work for no pay)

• “lien” your home or other assets 

• charge late fees and/or interest

Your contract probably DOESN’T include: 

• a set monthly price or cap on the total bill

• a process for you to approve all work in advance or pick from lower cost options

• a budget for your case

You won’t know how much your monthly bills will be until you get your first bill. 

To illustrate:

You have $10,000 budgeted for your case

Your retainer is $2,500

Assuming (for purposes of this exercise) monthly bills of $2,500 (or 2 ½ hours a week if your lawyer charges $250 per hour), you can cover 4 months of work.

If you are in the larger half of all cases that wrap up within 4 months, you’ll be fine.

You likely settled your case and should congratulate yourself as you finish on time, within budget.  

If, however, you are in the other half of cases that take 6 months to 2 years to finish, you’re going to run out of money and get legally stranded.  

At that point you have two choices: go into debt or go it alone. 

Given standard case timelines, it’s likely your lawyer spent the first 60 days filing and serving your papers and/or reviewing the response. S/he probably spent the next 60 days sending and responding to discovery requests and organizing documents. That means you’ll have to tackle the remaining and important tasks on your own: settlement, trial preparation, trial and getting your judgment.

 What’s the Alternative?

Unbundled Services or “Alternative Fee Agreements” (such as flat fees), along with planning backwards will help you avoid being stuck.

Using our unbundled products and services, you can budget your case to get help with the more important or complicated topics (such as trial preparation) and tasks; save money by doing the rest yourself (such as completing court documents).  

Using Rogue Family Law’s unbundled services in our earlier example, it looks like this:  

You have $10,000 for your case

You have $0 tied up in a retainer

Here's how you can use your budget at Rogue Family Law: 

• Get legal advice about rights and responsibilities and process (Legal Orientation: $250-$350)
• Prepare your own paperwork to open case (Document Portal Pleading Workflow: $350)
• Gather/organize your documents using suggestions in the Portal Course (included in workflows: $0)
• Prepare your own paperwork to get Status Quo Orders (Temporary Relief Workflow: $275)
• Prepare your Temporary Custody/Parenting Time/Support Orders (use above workflow: $0 extra)
• Prepare for hearing by attending 1-hour Consulting Session: $300
• Conduct hearing following plan: $0
• Prepare Proposed Judgment: $0 (included in cost Workflow for Temporary Relief)
• Take Discovery Workshop: $250
• Send out Discovery Requests/Respond to Requests (Discovery Portal Workflow: $295)
• Prepare for parenting issues in case by taking Parenting Cases Workshop: $250
• Prepare for property issues in case by taking Property Workshop: $250
• Prepare for support issues in case by taking Support Workshop: $250
• Prepare plan for key issues using information from workshops: $0
• Attend 1 hour Consulting Session to test plan and fine-tune strategy: $300
• Take Mediation Workshop: $250
• Attend 1 hour Consulting Session to prepare a mediation strategy: $300
• Attend mediation:  $0
• Take Preparing For Court Workshop: $250
• Attend 1 hour Attorney Consulting Session to create trial strategy: $300
• Retain Limited Scope Services to draft trial memo: $900
• Prepare Proposed Judgment Using General Judgment Workflow $250
• Attend Consulting Session to have lawyer review Judgment $300
• Conduct Informal Trial (IDRT) using trial strategy: $0

Total Cost (for advice, information and tools until judgment): $5,420 ($4,580 saved!)

* You can run a similar analysis with any attorney who offers unbundled services.

In Summary - You Have Options

In both scenarios, you represent yourself.

In the first scenario, you used your whole budget within 4 months, leaving you to manage the rest of your case without advice. (In vacation terms, you flew first class, stayed in a great hotel for half your trip, ran out of money with no way back or food for the rest of your vacation).

In the second scenario, you represented yourself from the beginning, got document help, educated yourself about the topics in your case, and got support and advice from consulting throughout your case. You saved half of your budget. (Or, you flew coach, had housing and food throughout your vacation, had a ticket home and enough left over for a second vacation.)

Of course, if you have the funds for all your bills, you won’t be stranded but you may want to consider approaches to working with your lawyer that save some of those funds for a vacation after.

The choice of approach is yours. May you have fair winds, following seas and safe passage home!

For information about how Rogue Family Law can help you manage the costs of your case, click here.