Mine was 525. She is one of the top divorce attorneys in my state, so she may be a bit in the high end. My wife's isi believe 250 or something like that. It varies pretty greatly. Either way, expensive as hell and probably not worth it unless absolutely necessary, which judging from last. night, mine might be.

omg, is that per hour?!?

Yes, this sounds average for my area too.

Yes per hour.

Wow. Good reason to never get married again. My divorce cost me $400 total in attorney and court fees.

My lawyer 7 years ago cost $300 an hour (he charged quarterly and hour).
My ex dragged out the divorce to 5 years and 3 months......and sued me twice with 2 bogus lawsuits (he lost both of them but refused to sign the divorce decree unless I handed over the money......well worth it).
My divorce cost me a total of $130,000. by the time all was said and done!
These past 7 years have been some of my happiest years of my life.....better than the 24 years of hell he and his family put me through.
I have started a few businesses and have made the money back it took to get away from him.
It was such a shame that it cost so much.....but I didn't have much of a choice.
Freedom usually comes with a price tag!

oh good lord. I don't think i can afford to get divorced.

Mine was 475 an hour. I don't really have a good opinion of attys.The divorce was in three stages. Temp support, property settlement and then we stalled and did the final divorce. The ex was working overseas so everything took longer than it should have. By changing from adultery to 1 year of no cohabitation benefited me. Then there was the 3 court hearings for contempt because he felt he could not honor our agreement and he quit paying me. Those three hearings were taken care ofover a six 6 year span post divorce. That atty went to court with me all six times. He changed my opinion of attys. I never worried about the fees he charged because that man was worth every dollar I spent to get free of the ex. If not for that high priced atty I wouldn't have what I have today.

In 2012, I spent $450 to speak to a topnotch divorce attorney in Marin County, North of San Francisco. He estimated that I'd spend $20K if my now ex contested everything. If she did not? He admitted that the $20k would still be spent (retainer fee) and not be cost effective.

I wrote the check for $450 and said if it gets sticky, I'd be back. Never had to go back, I filed the forms myself with the help of the county court that handled divorces.

Ex-wife spent about $4k and tried to say her attorney was "our " mediator. Actually tried to get me to pay half the fee!

I went to every court appointment (there were four) and neither she nor her attorney showed up.

our children were grown up so no child support issues. There was spousal support, an I handled the "idea' of it based on my speaking to that attorney initially.

I have an attorney in mind but haven't hired her yet. Just got my papers this past Saturday. I know I need to answer soon but I'm afraid to do so with out counsel. My husband said that he would pay for the entire thing, neither of us an afford it anyway, but I still feel like I need help. We were trying to be cordial but he has had some rages that I'm not so sure. I still think he is in the middle of a midlife crisis and I don't want to give up but I'm running out of time. Attorneys will milk the money and I don't have much to begin with. I don't know what to do! She wants $1500 retainer upfront and then we go from there. She is tough and I like that but is that what I need?

I think you have to unless you file yourself. $1500 retainer fee sounds reasonable after I did some research.... have you two tried counseling?

The more you can agree on beforehand, the cheaper it will be. In my case, my stbx is a very manipulative man who lies a lot. I can't believe two words that come out of his mouth. There was no way I was even going to put myself through the hell of trying to negotiate with him on my own. I need my attorney and I need to run just about everything, even the basic stuff, through her. I mean this is my financial future at stake here! You don't get a second chance to go back and renegotiate a divorce settlement. If I was dealing with a mature, honorable man, it would have been a different story. We could have negotiated so much on our own.