Making the husband pay for opposing counsel is one of the worst things about a divorce and should be flat out illegal. In any other type of trial if attorney's fees are awarded it's after the fact, so all of your decisions were based on the possibility that you would have to pay.
The problem with assigning attorneys fees up front is that normally, part of an attorney's duty to their client is to explain the financial cost of what they're doing and allow the client to weigh that against the benefit. For example, if your case is going to cost $10,000 in fees, and can only possibly recover $5,000 in a judgment, the attorney should advise you of this and dissuade you from moving forward.
But if the other side is paying for everything, there is absolutely no incentive to not file frivolous motions or take other actions that rack up billable hours with little chance of success. The client isn't going to pay either way, so they're free to be as wasteful as they want.
The worst part is that it's so routine that when a co-worker of mine got divorced it was unusual that the judge granted his motion to not pay his spouse's fees. She skipped out on the bill, and her attorney forgot that she was on the hook and tried to collect from my buddy. He enjoyed telling that attorney to fuck off and that his client was probably never going to pay him.
Making the husband pay for opposing counsel is one of the worst things about a divorce and should be flat out illegal. In any other type of trial if attorney's fees are awarded it's after the fact, so all of your decisions were based on the possibility that you would have to pay.
The problem with assigning attorneys fees up front is that normally, part of an attorney's duty to their client is to explain the financial cost of what they're doing and allow the client to weigh that against the benefit. For example, if your case is going to cost $10,000 in fees, and can only possibly recover $5,000 in a judgment, the attorney should advise you of this and dissuade you from moving forward.
But if the other side is paying for everything, there is absolutely no incentive to not file frivolous motions or take other actions that rack up billable hours with little chance of success. The client isn't going to pay either way, so they're free to be as wasteful as they want.
The worst part is that it's so routine that when a co-worker of mine got divorced it was unusual that the judge granted his motion to not pay his spouse's fees. She skipped out on the bill, and her attorney forgot that she was on the hook and tried to collect from my buddy. He enjoyed telling that attorney to fuck off and that his client was probably never going to pay him.