However, both of you are still not able to reach a solution to resolve your marital differences with the other side. Usually it is advisable for you to invite the other side to consider engaging a marriage counselor to help each other to reconcile the marital differences and avoid a divorce as divorce can be a traumatizing experience.
However, if after having exhausted the many avenues to try to reconcile the differences with the other side and both side realise that it is impossible to carry on living together, then sometimes it is not a bad thing to consider divorce as an option to free each other from an unhappy marriage so that both sides can move on with their lives and be friends to work together on other issues after the divorce especially if both parties already have children in the marriage.
If you are embarking on filing divorce proceeding to dissolve the unhappy marriage with your spouse, it is advisable firstly to consider the following:
OR
2.If you are facing the other spouse who is unwilling or hostile to even have a prior discussion on the issues involving the care arrangement of the children, the financial issues of maintenance and division of matrimonial assets acquired by both parties from the time of marriage which invariable means that your divorce case is likely to become an contested divorce case.
An uncontested or consent divorce means a situation where you and your spouse not only wants to end the marriage but also agree on the ancillary issues like care arrangement of the children, the financial issues of maintenance for wife and children and division of matrimonial house and other assets jointly acquired by both parties from the time of the marriage before one of the party engaging a lawyer to prepare the divorce documentation work to be submitted to the court.
If you are looking for a divorce lawyer within your budget, then you are strongly advised to consider whether you can talk to your spouse to explore the possibility of reaching an agreement to divorce and the ancillary issues so that both parties can proceed with an uncontested or consent divorce.
This is because the cost of divorce in Singapore is much cheaper for uncontested or consent divorce as compared to a contested divorce.
Most lawyers in Singapore will charge a fixed fee structure for uncontested or consent divorce because the lawyers are able to assess in advance the amount of work and documents to prepare as compared to contested divorce where it is not possible to estimate in advance the amount of work and documents to be done. This is because the duration and intensity of the amount of work and documents needed to be done for contested divorce is dependable on how and what the other spouse does.
The fixed fee for uncontested or consent divorce should be nett fees and include the lawyer fees for preparing the divorce forms and settlement agreement terms, consultation time required by lawyers to interview client to collect the necessary datas to prepare the court papers, court filing fees, commissioning fees, bankruptcy search fees, photocopying and other miscellaneous fees .
There are different fixed fees for different types of uncontested or consent divorce for example, cases where couple do not have children and property would be most affordable. Cases involving property and children would require filing of additional documents like Parenting and Property Plan with the court and writing letters to HDB or CPF Board on issues involving the agreed transfer of one spouse’s CPF monies or waiver of CPF monies refund for one party’s transfer of the share of the house to other spouse.
An contested divorce means a situation where you and your spouse are not able to sit down to have a prior agreement on the issues of divorce, care arrangement of the children, division of the matrimonial house and assets.
This scenario of contested divorce can occur because one spouse refuses to talk to you about settling the issues or one spouse has committed an secret adulterous affair and it is not generally advisable to approach this spouse to discuss the prospect of divorce without compromising the private investigator actions to gather evidence of this spouse alleged adulterous affair.
Usually most divorce lawyers in Singapore would not fix the fees for contested divorce where both parties are not able to reach an agreement or the case are complex.
The standard practice is to bill on an hourly basis based on the experience of the lawyer who does the work, time spent on court attendance, mediation meeting in the court negotiating with the other side, drafting court documents as required by the case or making urgent sub applications like interim maintenance, custody, care and control of the child, access for one party to see the child.
Besides the lawyer fees, there are also court filing fees and disbursements (for things like photocopying).
For this kind of contested divorce, you can discuss with your lawyer to give an estimate of the fee structure or a cost budget so as to spend within the budget that you can afford to. Such fee structure or cost budget can range from between $10,000 to $30,000.
At Raymond Lim & Co, our fixed fees for an Uncontested Divorce are in the range from $1,200 to $2,600.
Our Fees for an Uncontested Divorce will includes all our legal fees, filing and court fees and involves the following work:
– preparing divorce papers.
– preparing your settlement terms (if any).
– filing the divorce papers for uncontested divorce hearing.
– applying to the court to issue your Interim Judgment ( temporary divorce certificate) and Final Judgment (final divorce certificate)
If you and your spouse are not able to reach any agreement as to the divorce or if you and your spouse have complex issues which are not able to be settled in the beginning and required the assistance of the Court and legal process, please contact us for a free phone consultation.
At the consultation, we will be able to advise you an estimate of the legal fees and some advice to prepare for an contested divorce.
#03-40 People Park Center
101 Upper Cross Street
Singapore 058357
Mobile: 9760 7060
Tel: 6222 1004
Fax: 6222 1648
Main E-mail : RaymondLimCo@yahoo.com.sg
Other E-mail : RaymondLimWeiFeng@gmail.com
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