In order for the parties to have a level playing field, the law requires that the court order a spouse who has access to more money to pay reasonable attorney fees of the other.

This could be disparity of income meaning one spouse makes more money than the other or it could be that one spouse has access to more liquid assets than the other.

If the parties have accumulated savings and cash during the marriage then commonly the court awards attorneys to both sides in the same amount from the community funds.

As you can predict the lawyers fight each other and get paid from the common pot of money.

If one spouse is acting in bad faith causing the other to spend a lot of attorney fees to prove his/her bad acts, then at the end of the case, at trial, a lot more attorney fees is expended to prove that one spouse should pay more fees than the other.

Parties going through a divorce litigation pay for communications with their attorneys, many letters back and forth with opposing counsel, witnesses, forensic accountants, minor’s counsel or custody evaluator, discovery back and forth, discovery motions, subpoenas, Request for Orders, Responding to Request for Orders, preparing for trial, status conferences, mandatory settlement conferences, court appearances …. many times costing them between $5000 to $10000 per month spending over $100,000 on average of $250,000.  I personally spent over $500,000 for my divorce and finally went to law school to not have to pay any more attorney fees.

Parties going through a Collaborative divorce, pay for communication with their attorneys, communications between their attorney and financial neutral and coaches, and pay for team meetings, normally costing between $5000 to $25,000 for the whole process.