“When a couple start keeping score, there is no winning. There's only degrees of losing.”
Such wise words from the mouth of a divorce lawyer, albeit a fictional one played by Danny DeVito, in a movie he directed himself, The War of the Roses.
If it ever gets to the stage where your marriage breaks down, and you are thinking of calling in the lawyers, it’s a movie well worth watching. And while you’re at it, today’s Liveline might be a radio show well worth listening back to you, where the subject of the expense which can be occurred in divorce proceedings was given some airtime.
Legal fees in divorce cases, it seems, are very much a case of “how long is a piece of string”, with one caller, Dave, detailing how an initial estimate of around €4000 spiralled without his knowledge, and he was finally landed with a bill of €34,000.
“I got my divorce in 2008. The original bill, I was quoted €2000, plus approximately €2000 for barrister’s fees…. I went through my divorce, I got a bill for €34,000… Of course, I wasn’t going to pay that, so I went to the Bar Society.”
The two solicitors Dave had used were brought before their governing body, he says, and, between the jigs and reels, he wound up paying a total of around €6000 for everything, solicitor and barrister fees included.
Quite a reduction, I’m sure you’ll agree. And quite a long piece of string, cut down to size.
But divorces, if you put your thinking cap on, can cost as little as €30, according to a subsequent caller to the show, Kate, who described her own DIY divorce with great aplomb. “I did it myself” said Kate. “I was a long time separated, there were no issues with property or children. I was able to download all the papers.” A few trips into the city, an ex-husband who signed the relevant papers with no fanfare, and Bob’s your uncle. And as for the legal process itself, the court proceedings?
“I had the most amazing judge. I had about five or 10 minutes of fun. A very good experience, let’s say. And I got my divorce. And it cost me, including my transfers on the LUAS, between €30 and €35 altogether.”
It wasn’t the only experience on Liveline of wildly fluctuating prices to “cut the dingy loose”, as they say. And, if you’re in the roles of Barbara and Oliver Rose, as played by Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas in that legendary movie, those experiences might be well worth listening back to in full. You can do so by clicking here.
Photo Credit: NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images