Thursday, June 12, 2008

What are Lawyer's Fees in Madison County, Indiana?

The Madison County Bar Association conducted a lawyer fee survey for a variety of family law cases (divorce, child support, visitation, and custody). They got 31 responses received and from those responses they got the following numbers:

HOURLY RATES:
Median 180.00
Average 179.44
High/low 100/250


SUGGESTED FEE AWARDS IN DIVORCE CASES:

Provisional hearing
Median 600.00
Average 626.32


Contested final (no custody/complex property)
Median 1200.00
Average 1235.29


Contested final (custody or complex property)
Median 2500.00
Average 2734.38


Contested final (both custody and complex property)
Median 3500.00
Average 3921.88.


Post-judgment enforcement of support or visitation
Median 750.00
Average 648.68

Which does not mean that the fees in a particular case could not be higher or lower than set out here. I had a case last year where opposing counsel asked the court for my client to pay his fees of $5,000.00 in a custody case (the court refused). I would also point out - for those who get particular about their statistics - that 31 represents about one-third of the Madison County Bar. Still, I hope this proves educational.

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