Divorce Attorney Fees in Phoenix

With a divorce attorney in Phoenix, custody, or child support cases, parties seek attorney’s fees.  This is one of the more challenging aspects of the case as seeking an award of attorney’s fees you must be able to show one that there is a wide disparity of income and secondly that one party has been unreasonable.  Some judges apply this either/or.  In other words, there’s a wide disparity in income despite there not being unreasonable positions, the Court may award attorney’s fees.  So, going into a case make sure you discuss this with your attorney so that you understand the likelihood of you getting attorney’s fees.  If it’s a long term marriage and one spouse does not have access to funds to continue to hire an attorney, an interim or temporary award of attorney’s fees would be appropriate but you must petition the Court for this. The bigger the difference in income the more likely one party may receive an award of attorney’s fees. Also, unreasonable positions.  An example I like to use is that if you are requesting an award of attorney’s fees and you can show your spouse is taking unreasonable positions then you may have a shot at getting attorney’s fees.  A typical unreasonable position would be requesting the other party’s requesting sole legal custody and there is no basis for sole legal custody.  In other words, there’s not any history of domestic violence or significant history of domestic violence.  There’s no alcohol abuse, no drug abuse.  The other party is not unreasonable in attempting to co-parent.  If you can’t show that but you force your spouse or your spouse forces you to incur attorney’s fees to fight these frivolous positions, the Court is likely to award you some attorney’s fees.]]>