In New York, divorce cases can end in one of two ways. The parties can sign a divorce agreement or they can go to court and have a judge decide matters for them. Before electing to go to court, people must consider all of the costs of a divorce trial. These can involve both financial and emotional costs, and they can be considerable.
The obvious cost of a divorce trial is the money that it takes. Going into court can be expensive as bills include attorney’s fees and court costs. Attorneys must make a court filing and prepare for trial, which adds to the costs. However, there are circumstances where it is necessary to incur these expenses if the other spouse is playing hardball and being unreasonable. The preference should be to settle amicably, but sometimes people are left with no choice but to litigate.
Another cost is the stress that is involved in a divorce trial. Going to court is tense, and it is scary to be in front of a judge. In addition, there are also ramifications for the relationship between the two spouses as it may take some time for things to calm down after the trial if tensions can even be lowered at all. Nonetheless, sometimes a divorce trial cannot be avoided, even if one party has no desire to go to court.
A divorce attorney might lay out the costs of a trial to their client alongside an explanation of the possible benefits of going to court. The client will then be able to make an informed decision about whether it is worth the costs to take the case to court. If the case does go to trial, the lawyer could argue the case on their behalf to the judge in order to achieve the most favorable resolution possible.