Divorce can be a difficult process, particularly when you and your spouse disagree over how to divide your property and other assets. The same is true if you can’t agree on who will pay off debts you owe together.
In 2019, we surveyed our readers across the country who had recently been through a divorce. Here’s what we learned about how disputes over property and debts affect the cost and duration of a divorce.
How Property Division Issues Affect the Cost of Divorce
In our 2019 survey, just over half (52%) of our readers told us they had disagreements about how to divide assets they owned with their spouses. The vast majority (78%) of these readers hired a divorce lawyer to help them resolve those issues. Readers who hired lawyers paid an average of $13,900 for their divorce attorneys’ fees and $2,000 in other costs.
If that average total cost—just under $16,000—sounds like a lot, it may help to remember that a relatively small group of people with particularly high costs can drive up the average. More typical is the median amount—the midpoint where half paid less and half paid more. In our survey, the median total divorce cost for readers with property disputes was $10,500. About a quarter (24%) paid as little as $5,000 or less, while 15% paid as much as $30,000—or more.
Your divorce costs will depend on many factors. Let’s take a look at some of the most common.
The Type and Amount of Your Assets
Usually, the bigger your marital estate (all jointly owned assets), the more you’ll have to pay to divide it. If you and your spouse have a high net worth—with numerous brokerage accounts, retirement accounts, and real estate portfolios—you’ll need to get careful legal and financial analyses from attorneys and specialized experts to make sure the assets are assigned the proper value and your interests are protected.
Dividing high-value assets can have major tax implications, so it’s crucial to have a knowledgeable certified public accountant (CPA) on board as well. But even if your marital estate is more modest, you might have assets like pensions that call for expert assistance to determine how much they’re worth and how they should be divided.
Your Legal Representation
Most people hire full-scope attorneys to handle their entire divorce case from start to finish. Full-scope attorneys almost always bill by the hour, and those hourly rates vary a lot based on factors such as the lawyer’s location, level of experience, and specialized training.
If you hire a consulting attorney to help with just part of the divorce process—like reviewing a settlement agreement—you’ll usually pay considerably less in attorneys’ fees than if you hire a full-scope attorney. Using a consulting attorney isn’t for everyone; only 10% of readers in our 2019 survey went that route, paying an average of $6,500 in attorneys’ fees.
Settlement or Trial
If you and your spouse take a long time to reach a settlement agreement, you’ll end up paying for more of your lawyer’s time. But if you can’t reach an agreement at all—and have to go to trial to resolve your divorce disputes—your costs will rise even more (see below to see just how much).
How Going to Trial Affects the Cost and Duration of Divorce With Property Disputes
In our 2019 survey, two-thirds (66%) of our readers who had property disputes were able to negotiate with their spouses and reach a settlement agreement (often with the help of divorce mediation). And that’s a good thing, because our survey showed that couples can save a lot of time and money by avoiding a divorce trial.
Readers who settled their property-division issues had total average costs of $12,600 (including attorneys’ fees), compared to $22,100 for those who went to trial. Going to trial also meant the divorce process took longer—an average of 20 months compared to 13 months for those who settled their property issues.
When Divorces Involve Both Property and Debt Disputes
In addition to property disputes, many divorcing couples also have trouble working out who will be responsible for paying off debts they owe together. In fact, nearly three-quarters (72%) of the readers in our survey with property disputes also disagreed with their spouses over the division of debts.
As with property, state law determines how debts should be divided between divorcing spouses. And the two issues often go hand in hand—for example, when one spouse gets the family home in the divorce, that spouse usually assumes responsibility for paying off the mortgage.
How a Dispute Over the Family Home Affects Divorce
When you and your spouse own a house together, dividing the property can get complicated. First, you’ll need to consider when you bought the house, whose money was used to pay for it, and whether the home gained value during marriage. You'll need to get your house appraised or look at recent, comparable sales in your area and factor in the remaining debt.
Second, you'll need to decide what will happen to the house after the divorce. Sometimes one spouse can afford to buy the other out. Or a couple might agree that the primary caregiver can live in the home until the children are grown. Some divorced couples with joint custody of their children work out an alternative “nesting” arrangement, under which the parents take turns between the family home and an apartment, so the kids can stay put rather than moving back and forth. In these situations, however, the divorced couples will need to figure out how to split maintenance costs, the mortgage, property taxes, and property-related tax deductions at the end of each year. To avoid these headaches, some divorcing couples simply sell the home and divide the profits.
Whichever option you take, a dispute over the family home can cost money in your divorce. You’ll need to pay for a licensed real estate appraiser, and it will take more of your attorney’s time to work out a settlement or go to trial. In our 2019 survey, the readers who owned a home with their spouses (about three-quarters of all those with property disputes) had total average divorce costs of $16,600, including attorneys’ fees. In comparison, those who didn’t own a house but had other property disputes spent an average of $12,600.
How a Dispute Over the Family Business Affects the Cost of Divorce
If you and your spouse own a business together, that could complicate the division of your property. Dividing business assets in a divorce involves legal and financial questions of who owns the business, what it’s worth, and what will happen to the business after the divorce. Answering those questions will usually require advice from business valuation experts and CPAs, as well as your attorney’s time. So it’s not surprising that in our 2019 survey, readers whose property disputes included a family business had higher average divorce costs ($17,500, including attorneys’ fees) than those who didn't have a business ($15,200).
How Do Other Disputes Affect the Cost and Duration of Divorce With Property and Debt Issues?
Couples who disagree about dividing their property often have other contested issues in their divorce, such as disputes over child custody, child support, and alimony. Those disputes can increase their divorce costs, particularly if they go to trial.
In our 2019 survey, readers who had property disputes plus at least two other contested issues spent an average of $24,900 (including attorneys’ fees) if they went to trial on at least one issue—and even more if they took multiple disputes to trial.
Divorces Without Property and Debt Disputes
Our 2019 survey confirmed that getting divorced is generally much less expensive for those who don’t have property or debts to fight over—or who can easily agree on how to split items. Readers without property or debt disputes spent an average of $5,900 in total divorce costs (including $4,900 in attorneys’ fees), and two-thirds of them paid $3,000 or less.
Couples who don’t have property or debt can get through the divorce process relatively quickly. In our survey, readers without property disputes completed their divorces in an average of nine months. Again, that’s the average. More typical is the median (meaning the midpoint at which half took less time and half took longer), which was six months for these readers. In comparison, readers who did have disagreements over property and debts took an average of 15 months to resolve those disputes.
How Do Property Disputes Affect the Divorce Experience?
When we asked readers in 2019 how they felt about their divorce experience, their answers revealed that property disputes can make the process more difficult. Those who didn’t fight over property were about twice as likely to be satisfied with the outcome of their cases as those who had these contested issues (61% versus 31%). In addition, 83% of readers with property disputes described the process of resolving those disputes as difficult or very difficult.
Can I Represent Myself in a Divorce Involving Property and Debt Disputes?
You don’t have to hire a lawyer to represent you in a divorce. But representing yourself in a dispute involving property and debt has some serious challenges. Divorce lawyers tend to have extensive training on state-specific laws and experience with how local judges apply those laws. If your spouse has a lawyer, you’ll be at a big disadvantage if you don’t hire a lawyer too.
A good family law attorney can guide you through these complicated issues, help find the right financial and tax experts when that’s necessary, and make sure that your rights are protected.