Attorneys are about as well-loved as ants at a picnic. Unlike those unwelcome protein additions to your potato salad, however, I would like to think that members of my profession can be useful at times. There are rules and laws that are good to know if you are on the business end of a court proceeding. Judges are not patient with people who waste their time with irrelevant and useless information when they are trying to make a decision. A lawyer can help you present the facts and arguments a judge is likely to take seriously. However, if you are forced to pay attorney’s fees for the other side, you may prefer the ants.
 
You may wonder what attorneys actually do as you watch your counsel park his BMW next to the Lexus of your spouse’s lawyer. There certainly has to be a reason for someone to charge $300 an hour. A beach house in Palm Springs and a private jet may explain some of the charges. However, for most of us, there are genuine expenses we have to meet before we can even begin to profit from this profession.
 
Obviously, to represent clients we have to have a place to meet them. Attorneys’ offices vary in luxury. The thick carpet and leather chairs prevalent in some places are the envy of those of us who buy our office equipment and furniture at discount clubs. Most of us consider air conditioning and heat as necessary expenditures. Paralegals and secretaries have to be paid. You would not want a lawyer who did not maintain a legal research service any more then you would want a surgeon whose scalpel was sharpened on his home electric can opener. 
 
Still, I am impressed with the fees commanded by some of my colleagues. Unless I know specifically what they did in representing a client, I cannot say that they didn’t earn the money. Nevertheless, amounts like the $69,000 at issue in Pond v. McNellis, 2006 N.E.2d Slip (2006-181), would strike me and most of the lawyers I know as mighty impressive.
 
In Indiana, parties generally bear their own legal expenses. However, Indiana Code 31-15-10-1 provides the court with the authority to impose attorney’s fees and litigation expenses on a spouse who makes significantly more money. If one of the parties causes the proceeding to cost more by delaying tactics and failure to cooperate with legitimate requests, he or she can be made to pay the fees for the cost of such actions. Failing to cooperate with discovery requests, not being prepared for hearings, and failing to follow court orders can cost the other side additional money and can be taxed to the recalcitrant party.
 
You can take steps to limit the amount of money you pay in legal fees. When you are asked for documents, such as titles, bank statements, financial information, and the like, provide them as quickly as you can. It is more expensive to pay a lawyer to obtain them directly from the source. If experts become necessary, you and your spouse should choose one and split the expenses. One house appraisal or custody evaluator should be adequate to give objective information to the court. Don’t schedule unnecessary consultations with your lawyer, or call his or her office every time your spouse does something annoying. Often, there is nothing the lawyer can do to help you, but he or she will charge you for their time in any event. Be open-minded in your negotiations with your spouse. Don’t fight over items like furniture, dishes, appliances, or linens if you can help it. In the long run, it will probably be cheaper to replace these items than it is to pay an attorney to go after them for you. An old car, lawn tractor, or Rototiller might be costly to replace, but in many cases, paying a lawyer’s fees to retrieve these items might be more expensive. You have to decide what you really want. Is the item irreplaceable, or are you just loathed to let your spouse have it?
 
The decision of whether or not to award attorney’s fees is up to the court. For this reason, many attorneys are not willing to represent you for free in the hope that a judge will compensate them at a later date for time spent. Even if fees are awarded, collecting them from an unwilling judgment debtor can take much more of a lawyer’s time. Time and knowledge are the only things a lawyer has to sell, and thus we don’t lightly use this valuable commodity on activities that don’t help us make a living. Nevertheless, new lawyers and legal clinics may be able to give you the help you need at an affordable cost. There are also many online services that can help you represent yourself for little or no money. However, if your case is complicated and the issues are important, you may have to reconcile yourself to bringing enough potato salad to the picnic to satisfy the hungry ants.