The Fees for a Divorce Lawyer and Community Obligations in Louisiana

Different states in America have different laws a divorce lawyer uses.  In Louisiana, we use a “community property regime” scheme.  Community property, generally, involves the idea that things earned by the spouses during the course of the marriage are shared equally by the spouses.  There are many exceptions to this general rule; and this article does not deal with them specifically.  This article is about the opposite proposition, that is, not only is the property that is earned between the spouses shared evenly between them, but so are they debts and other “obligations” incurred over the course of the marriage.  Even more specifically, this article addresses the idea that attorney’s fees related to an action to end a marriage may be considered a community obligation. 

Let’s use an example.  Let’s say that Mark and Susan are married for ten years.  They have two children from the marriage.  In the eleventh year of being married, Mark and Susan are bickering constantly.  Mark travels often for work, and when he is home, Susan feels like he is not very attentive to her needs.  She also thinks that he is not doing his part in raising the children.  After many tearful arguments and sleepless nights, Susan desires to hire a divorce lawyer. 

Susan and Mark have a very large and very complicated community property regime.  They have purchased a good deal of assets over the course of their marriage, and classifying what belongs to whom has not been an easy task.  Furthermore, they cannot agree on how to divide it up themselves.  Mark has hired a good friend, who is a divorce lawyer and who has a reputation of being a fine family law attorney, to represent him.  Susan is very worried that Mark’s attorney will be able to argue persuasively that Susan deserves less that she thinks she actually does.  For this reason, Susan decides to hire a very expensive divorce lawyer. 

When Susan meets with her attorney for the first time, she realizes that he will be costly.  The attorney tells her that she does not need to pay his fee all at once; and that actually she can defer payment to him until after the case is resolved.

Louisiana Civil Code article 2362.1 says that if a spouse incurs an obligation for attorney fees as part of ending the marriage, than that obligation may be considered a community obligation.  This means that there is a chance that, when a Louisiana court is dividing up the community property and community obligations, it may consider the money that Susan owes her attorney for representing her, an obligation that is shared by both she and Mark equally.

While this may appear to be a reason to hire the most expensive divorce lawyer that one can find, one problem with this is this provision is not always followed, especially in consent judgments (which most cases are).  Another consideration to make is that going through a marital breakup can be very stressful and there can be value in having it over sooner rather than later – with this being said it is important that it be fair to both sides.

The foregoing article is designed to be general informational in nature and not legal advice.  Will Beaumont has an office in New Orleans.