cost of legal seperation review

[lynn misener]

If my husband and I have drawn up a seperation agreement and have agreed on everything in the agreement and I want it reviewed by my lawyer and then sent to his lawyer for review and then possibly that will be it....then typed and finalized and signed by both parties.
WHAT WILL THIS COST ME ROUGHLY IN LEGAL FEES. (ONTARIO,CANADA)

 

[NBDad]

Call the lawyer and ask for a ballpark estimate. If your lawyer has any experience at all they should be able to give you a rough idea.

 

[Mess]

If you are very firm that you don't want to reopen anything and you are settled, you have to dig in your heels, your lawyers will want to talk you into reopening things. More business for them. No avoiding that.

The lawyer will suggest some changes in wording which may be a good idea to make clauses either more clear in wording, or more secure legally. This is OK, but look for about an hour of billing there. The lawyer has to go through it clause by clause with you and explain each clause, even if you wrote it yourself and know what it means. They are swearing on the document that they explained it to you, so they have to sit with you and do this. Call this another hour.

The will have their legal assisstant type it up and make copies. We had 4 copies made, and my ex, her lawyer, me and my lawyer all intiialled each page and then signed at the end. The typing and copying will be the least of the cost, but add it in, probably another $50.

Depending on how much the lawyer charges per hour, I would say anywhere from $500-$700. You might get them to agree to a flat rate if you stress that you just want it signed and notarized with no reopening of any issues.

 

[LostFather]

If my husband and I have drawn up a seperation agreement and have agreed on everything in the agreement and I want it reviewed by my lawyer and then sent to his lawyer for review and then possibly that will be it....then typed and finalized and signed by both parties.
WHAT WILL THIS COST ME ROUGHLY IN LEGAL FEES. (ONTARIO,CANADA)

Yes, what the other posters have said, if you have an agreement in principle, don't let the lawyer put in crap that you know will piss of the other, ask him/her to use the KISS method as much as possible, after you have the draft, take it home and read it, many times, pick out the words or phrases you're not sure of and look them up. If your lawyer refuses, it's cheaper to shop around, then to potential be involved in a long drawn out battle in the courts which can leads to 10's of thousands. It doesn't take long, as others will tell you in here to rack up $30-50K in legal fees.

I'm at the $70K mark mark so far. But then again I have an ex that doesn't want to agree to anything that involves me getting time or more time (in fact she wants to reduce my time or eliminate) with my children or having a say in their lives.

If there are terms in there that are not what you want or you think will just inflame the other, then ask for them to be changed or re worded. There is nothing wrong in protecting yourself, but as was already said, the lawyer is looking to make money, they do not make $$$ when everyone is happy if you catch my drift.

Things can turn ugly in a hart beat, and I believe that much of it is mis understandings of what has been drawn up, and offends the other on what might be otherwise a minor issue.


Good luck!