Attorney retainer fee, is this reasonable?

[supertrooper1]

I just met with my potential new divorce attorney. She's twice as much per hour as any other divorce attorney I've spoken with in my area and she's asking for a $25,000 retainer. Is this normal? My current attorney only required $2,500. I really like the new attorney and think she would get my case rolling. And she came well recommended by another attorney that couldn't take my case due to conflict.

P.S. probably a post and run...

[mae0111]

Omg. That seems insane to me.

[mommyatty]

That’s really high. Is she assuming a huge custody battle? That’s crazy high.

[twinmomma]

Whoa. That seems crazy! My retainer was $2500 and exh's was $3000. Our attorneys were each around $250/hour.

[traveltheworld]

What's her hourly rate? $25,000 seems very high for a retainer, is she expecting a very contentious legal battle?

[campermom]

Not similar at all. I want to say the higher one was 5k retainer and hourly fees were $310 here. She said an average contested divorce is 12-16k per person. I was hoping for mediation though.

(Still not sure whats going on in my life)

[AdaraMarie]

I think 3k to 6k is more like what I heard.

[callmekd]

That seems really high to me. I’m a practicing attorney in Minneapolis.

[shakinros]

That sounds bananas. But I have nothing on which to base this opinion so take it with a grain of salt!

[soccermama]

I've been a paralegal for 20 yrs and those fees seem insane. They might be on track if you are like a celebrity or royalty???

I see fees that are on track with what twinmomma, posted. Those seem about average to me.

[xctsclrx]

are you sure there wasn't a typo or something? that seems ridiculous

[mustardseed2007]

I'm in Texas and I would think that a 25K retainer would be appropriate for a high dollar value divorce. As in, a wealthy couple getting divorced. I have definitely seen expensive divorces, and certainly I'm sure that ones that last years and years with contentious custody disputes would exceed that amount. I'm a bit surprised at that number for a retainer though.

I wonder what her hourly rate is though?

[waverly]

I have no experience here, but I think I would rather go through mediation etc. rather than hand over 25K. Good luck to you for the process.

[supertrooper1]

Her hourly rate is $525. She told me that $25,000 would probably be the cost of getting ready for mediation, 8 hours of mediation and possibly preparing for trial. We have a trial date set. We went through one mediation already. We're definitely not in the wealthy couple category. The average hourly rate in my area is $250. I'm struggling to find an attorney in my area that is available and good. Mine just kind of flaked even though she is good.

waverly, mediation still requires an attorney on both sides plus you pay the mediator an insane hourly fee.

[waverly]

supertrooper1, yikes.