Why can a child custody dispute be expensive?
As a family lawyer, I often say that many people react when they hear the words “district court” or “lawyer”, because they immediately assume that the costs will be impossible to bear. But the reality is often different from what people expect.
The first thing you need to understand is that a child custody dispute can involve extensive proceedings. These can take a long time, so the costs can be substantial if you pay for everything yourself. The proceedings may include:
- Preliminary hearings
- A child custody investigation
- Contact with the local authority’s family law service
- A final hearing
- Sometimes, an appeal to the Court of Appeal
Legal expenses cover under your home insurance
Many clients are relieved to learn that there are two different arrangements that can help with costs: legal expenses insurance and legal aid.
Legal expenses insurance is usually the first option. This cover is commonly included in home insurance. It means that your insurer pays a large proportion of the costs of your legal representative in the dispute. Disputes about child custody, residence and contact are normally covered by the legal expenses section of your home insurance.
As a lawyer, you therefore almost always start by checking whether your client has home insurance that includes legal expenses cover. However, you should be aware that insurers often impose a waiting period before you can use the cover.
Many insurers also require your home insurance to have been in place for a certain period before the dispute arose. It is therefore important to contact your insurer early in the process.
How much will your excess be?
If your legal expenses claim is approved, your insurer will normally cover around 70–80 per cent of your lawyer’s fees. You will then usually pay an excess — your own share of the costs — of around 20–30 per cent, depending on the policy terms.
This means that if, for example, a child custody dispute resulted in legal representation costs of SEK 100,000, your insurer could in many cases pay most of the cost, while you pay your share as the excess.
When might legal aid be available?
If you do not have legal expenses cover, or cannot use it, legal aid may be the next option.
Legal aid is not the same as legal expenses insurance. Instead, the state helps to pay part of your lawyer’s fees. However, legal aid is subsidiary, meaning that you must first explore whether legal expenses insurance is available.
Financial eligibility and your legal aid contribution
To qualify for legal aid, you must meet financial requirements. As a general rule, your assessed financial resources must not exceed approximately SEK 260,000 per year, after taking account of certain financial circumstances, such as dependants, debts and assets.
Many people think that legal aid means the state pays everything, but that is not how it works. As an adult, you will normally have to pay a share yourself through what is known as a legal aid contribution. This contribution is determined by your financial circumstances and is set at different percentage rates. It can be as low as 2 per cent and as high as around 40 per cent of the costs of your legal representative in the child custody dispute. It all depends on your income.
This means that even with legal aid, you pay part of the cost yourself, while the state pays the rest.
The scope of the dispute affects the cost
Costs also vary depending on how extensive your child custody dispute becomes.
A dispute resolved early by agreement can be significantly less expensive than a case that proceeds through preliminary hearings, disputes over interim arrangements, a child custody investigation, final notification of the evidence to be relied on, a final hearing and possibly an appeal to the Court of Appeal.
Seek advice early to clarify the costs
Many people are surprised to discover that their home insurance or legal aid can cover a large proportion of the costs.
The most important step is therefore to contact a lawyer early. For many parents, this makes the process considerably more manageable than they initially expected. You can then quickly get help to establish:
- Whether you have legal expenses cover
- Whether legal aid may be available
- How much your excess will be
- What costs may actually arise in your particular child custody dispute