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  • pay her legal fees ?

    i served my wife today , and she said she will contest it and i will have to pay her legal fees ! , is this possible that i will have to pay her fees ? when i my self cant afford a lawyer

  • #2
    Legal Fees

    If one party is being totaly unreasonable then the Judge may order costs for resonable party.My ex wanted a very fair game (Kids to me but no child support,I should rent and he wanted the house for himself LOL) so he paid almost 6200 to my lawyer to cover my legal costs

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    • #3
      I would not concern myself with that at this point. That will be a long way down the road and only if you are not able to come to an agreement. If you come to an agreement then parties bear own costs. She obviously at this point as more than likely than yourself does not realize how this game is played. Hopefully, and best alternative is to come to a settlement sooner rather than later. This way costs can be minimized on both sides.

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      • #4
        A general rule of thumb would be this, (but not always, if the case is complex this changes).

        If the parties have submitted a claim to resolve say 8 issues, both parties submit their reasons for having things done their way etc.

        If the final judgment on say 6 of the issues are awarded in one parties favour then it is possible for that party to seek costs for having been successful on the majority of the issues. This basically means that this party was more reasonable in their claims then the non successful party. Therefore the courts feel that had both parties been reasonable they would both have come to the same conclusion not requiring court intervention. Thus the award of costs, to basically deter unreasonable claims.

        Of course this is not always the case.

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        • #5
          I don't think it has to be the case that just because one loses a particular motion or request that they were neccessarily unreasonable for raising it. I mean, if I make a motion to force my ex to wear a dunce cap as a part of our settlement, then clearly she shouldn't have to pay for the legal costs to defend against that. If, however, she is looking for $800/mth in SS and I put forth a reasonable argument for $500/mth which the court ultimately rejects, is it fair that I should pay her costs? I would argue no. People can both be reasonable but come to different conclusions.

          How much common sense is put into determining what is reasonable to put before the courts? Is it simply a tally of win-loss?

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          • #6
            Originally posted by About_Time View Post
            How much common sense is put into determining what is reasonable to put before the courts? Is it simply a tally of win-loss?
            It's not a tally per say.
            It's, as you stated, reasonability.
            In your example, the ex wanting $800, vs your counter offer of $500, and the order is set at $500. I think that this is a stale mate type thing, both reasonable offers, (background unknown) one is just more reasonable then the other, “in the eyes of the court” based on evidence and presentation of facts etc.

            This is like asking what will it cost to litigate an issue, there are no set rules for guarantying the result.
            There is also the "judge" factor.
            One judge may see all issues raised as reasonable where another may feel that a party is just wasting time or trying to side step responsibilities thereby awarding costs to the “reasonable” party for having to deal with the issues through court “unnecessarily”.
            I think the only way that you may be able to get a "feel" for how awards of costs are determined is by doing some case searching on similar issues that you are dealing with, review the history of the parties, see where there sit in relation to each other, are they similar or both as far to the left and right of a pendulum that they can be, and go to the bottom under costs, and see what was awarded.
            I'm sure after skimming half a dozen cases you'll have a feel for when costs are awarded and why.
            Sorry I couldn't be more defined on this

            Comment


            • #7
              This are a couple law firms take on award of costs.

              On a motion or at trial, if you are successful, the judge may award costs to you. Similarly, if you are not successful, you may have to pay your former partner's legal costs.

              However, often a judge will not award costs, especially in contested child custody cases. As well, the costs award is not intended to be a total repayment of your legal costs, but rather a contribution to your legal costs. Normally, costs awards will cover between 1/3 to 2/3 of your legal costs.

              You can also make an "offer to settle." If you offer to your former partner to settle the case, and you do better on the motion or trial, your award of costs will be increased.

              --------------------------------------------------------------------------
              "Costs" ordered by a court at the end of a motion or trial are the court's way of expressing approval or disapproval of one party or the other's conduct of the litigation. Costs usually "follow the event", that is, that the winner gets his or her costs, although not always. The costs awarded by a court, except in extremely unusual circumstances do not amount to an indemnity of one's legal costs, but merely a contribution.

              Costs are always in the discretion of the court.
              The award of costs can be significantly affected by the existence of Offers to Settle. An Offer to Settle is a formal document, but the court will also consider less formal binding offers. Offers are not disclosed to the court until after the court has rendered its decision. If, at the end of the motion or trial, the court is informed of an offer that was less favourable to the successful party than its order, that party can be awarded double costs.
              Last edited by FL_Needs_To_Change; 01-22-2009, 11:26 AM.

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              • #8
                Hi brick,

                In our case the ex has to pay $20,000.00 in court costs plus 6& post judgement interest. The reason behind his decision was that she was unreasonable and that our case should have never gone to trial. She was offered a settlement in 2006 of joint custody with our home being the primary residence and later she still did not settle when the Office of the Children's lawyer report recommended that the child live with us and she was to have specified visitations. In some cases the courts are unfair but in other cases they are not, in case we were very lucky we were as reasonable as possible throughout the entire 2.5 yrs we were fighting her in court for sole custody showing the court that we were not the many source of this conflict that brought us to court in the first place. What I am saying is the the trial judge in mandated to know your file no matter how big or small it is and take all factors to consider ordering costs. If you have been reasonable and the other party has not it is more than likely that court cost will not be ordered.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by dovan View Post
                  Hi brick,

                  In our case the ex has to pay $20,000.00 in court costs plus 6& post judgement interest. The reason behind his decision was that she was unreasonable and that our case should have never gone to trial.
                  How much were your legal fees in total and how much of that was for the trial?

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    The total cost was $45,000.00 and trial was about a third of that

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by dovan View Post
                      Hi brick,

                      In our case the ex has to pay $20,000.00 in court costs plus 6& post judgement interest. The reason behind his decision was that she was unreasonable and that our case should have never gone to trial. She was offered a settlement in 2006 .......
                      The primary reason for award of costs was this, "She was offered a settlement in 2006".

                      When one party offers a settlement and it is a reasonable offer to settle and the other party simply chooses to take their chances in court, and if the judge’s order resembles or is better then the offer to settle, the court will order costs to the party taking it to court without first mediating the offer to settle.
                      As dovan stated, this should never have gone to trial. Instead the lawyer for the ex should have advise mediation on the offer to settle before seeking to go to trial.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        The ex fired her lawyer when he mostly likely told her to settle and she went to trial in Superior court representing herself. She is a very difficult person so difficult that after we were awarded sole custody in June she continued on trying to change the order to suit herself. She would not return the child to us when she was suppose to, she started messing with the childs head even more by telling him that his lies got him taken away from her and that she cannot live without him. Needless to say the CAS in Nov stepped in and now we are back in court with CAS for emotional abuse. We still have custody of the child our role in this matter is that we cooperate with them in ensuring that the child attends supervised visitation with the ex twice a week for one hour each time. They are ordering that she has mental health assessment and counseling something that was also recommended by the Clinical investigator of the OCL but was never ordered in the final order in June. I guess the Judge felt there was not need to order that since she was not getting custody and hoped would stop the conflict between the parties but it did not. Three months later the child is still missing mom which is completely understandable but he understands why things are the way they are and he knows he does not want to go back to his mother's home the way it was before. He is much more calmer then ever before and he thought pattern as well. He continues to atttend counseling which we have provided for him since June 2007 when we realized that this was stressful on him as well and he needed someone to speak to that was not involved in the middle of everything.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          I am surpeised that you were awarded $20,000 in legal costs.I remember when my e x was nagging on every single thing . I made my lawyer very clear that I want sole custody at any cost, in worst scenario I will go to trial.Then she told me that even if we win the trial then too it will be damn costly for me because 6000 is the maximum costs I can be awarded by court.Rest everything will go from my pocket.

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                          • #14
                            I'm very sorry to read about the trouble Mom is creating for this child. Best of luck to you in normalizing things.

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                            • #15
                              Sufferer, the offer to settle to the ex was made in 2006 before the involvement of the OCL (Office of the Children's Lawyer) so in looking at our bill the judge basically had her pay costs on everything after that report of the OCL was filed and a portion of the legal bill after the settlement offer in 2006, the OCL reported that we should have sole custody of the child and only specified visitation to her among other issues as well pretaining to the ex that were not in her favor

                              Comment

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