Penny Wise and Pound Foolish: 4 Expenses You Should Not Spare in Divorce

Getting a divorce is expensive. It has a profound financial impact on your life; instead of one house payment, your family now has two. If you and your spouse don’t agree on how to divide the marital property, then you’re looking at a contested divorce. In a contested divorce, it’s critical to prepare your case for success. Sometimes you need to spend money to save money in the end, especially where you and your spouse disagree on the value of certain assets, like real property and family businesses. Below are four expenses you should seriously consider before rejecting as too costly.

1. Real Estate Appraisal: Every piece of real estate addressed in a divorce should be appraised, including the marital residence, vacation homes, and commercial or business property. Even if you believe that the property is “upside down,” the Court needs to have a dollar figure to put in its notes beside “Real Estate.” Failing to properly prove real estate value can result in grossly inequitable property division.

2. Business Valuation: This one hurts, I know. Your business doesn’t have any “value” because it’s your business, and without you, it’s not worth anything. Business valuations are expensive. But do you know what’s really expensive?: having to pay your spouse a million dollars for your welding business because you were too foolish to pay for a valuation.

3. Court Reporter: The Court does not pay for a court reporter in civil cases. In many counties, parties have to make special arrangements just to have a court reporter present for civil hearings. If you want a record of what actually happened in any of your court appearances, you’ll need to pay for a court reporter. You can certainly save some money by not having a court reporter “take down” your hearing, but this savings may well cost you later when you need to appeal a ruling, challenge your spouse’s prior testimony, or correct a legal or factual error.

4. Discovery: Discovery is the process in a civil case where each party, if requested, is required to make certain disclosures, provide documents, and answer pointed questions about the issues in a case. Discovery is your opportunity to find out what evidence your opponent has. The process is expensive and tedious. It results in the exchange of thousands of pages of documents, all of which must be reviewed and assessed. But, it’s better to know too much than not enough; understanding your opponent’s information is invaluable.