In many cases, one party to a divorce may allege that they are not in a financial condition to pay for a lawyer, but the other party has the financial ability to pay both lawyers’ costs.

Courts do not want to see situations where one party can drive the other into submission by outspending them on legal expenses.

To alleviate this, an attorney can go into Court prior to the final divorce hearing (usually when they are seeking temporary alimony or child support) and indicate to the Judge how much time they expect to put into the case and what type of costs may be incurred by their client (depositions, expert witnesses, investigations, etc).

The Judge may then award what are considered reasonable attorney fees and costs if he/she finds need on the part of the requesting party, as well as the ability to pay on the part of the other.