Chapter IX
ATTORNEY FEE AND EXPENSE AWARDS
A note of caution: Changes in divorce law are constant and can occur at any time either through new legislation or new state or federal court decisions. Each year, many such changes will occur. Your best and most current information will come from a lawyer who is competent in divorce practice and who keeps abreast of such changes and who is familiar with your own particular marital history.
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In its discretion, the trial court may or may not require one spouse to pay all of some part of the attorney fees and litigation expenses of the other party. But, once again, the Oklahoma statutes provide no objective guidance in the making of such awards, except to say that a court may make such orders as "may be just and proper under the circumstances."
Appellate court decisions indicate that the trial court may consider the time reasonably spent by an attorney in the case, reasonableness of settlement positions, size of the marital estate, difficulty of the case and other factors in resolving the issue.
Another test has present forefront in many trial courts - whether a party is possessed with the resources, particularly liquid resources, from which to pay his/her own attorney fees. However, even if so, if the party requesting fees and expenses has acted unreasonably in the litigation so as to unreasonably protract it, or has been uncooperative in discovery, such matters may mitigate against that party's fee request.
Upon application of either party, the court may award temporary attorney fees or money for expenses at any point in the litigation. However, the final resolution of an attorney fee request will occur at the conclusion of the case, usually after all other decisions have been made by the court, and usually in a separate hearing conducted after the divorce for this single purpose.
At this point, the reasonableness of the parties concerning settlement of the litigation may be considered. Normally, settlement offers are inadmissable as evidence in litigation. However, once the case issues are decided and all that remains is an attorney fee and expense request, such offers are then admissible and relevant as to whether the fee request is reasonable.
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