Who pays the litigation costs?
You are primarily responsible for your attorney fees, expert fees, and other litigation costs, and your spouse is primarily responsible for his or her litigation costs. Most lawyers, including WSW lawyers, require regular payment of their fees and will withdraw from your representation if there are unpaid fees and you are unable to give adequate security for the payment of such fees. However, lawyers and judges recognize that, in many cases, there is only one wage earner and that person typically controls the family finances. In such cases, as noted above, judges may ‘level the playing field’ by requiring the financially able spouse to pay interim fees to the other spouse so that there is parity in the payment of fees while the case progresses. All payments to your attorney, if they come from marital income or marital assets, are treated as advanced receipts by you against your share of whatever the court ultimately determines you should receive from the marital estate. At the end of t
