There is a saying in Roger L’Estrange’s Aesop’s Fables noting that “he that has the Longer Sword, shall never want, either Lawyers, or Divines to Defend his Claim.” Roger L’Estrange, Fables of Aesop and Other Eminent Mythologists, with Morals and Reflections and Fables and Stories Moralized: Being a Second Part of the Fables of Aesop. Put another way, money talks, and those parties that maintain the vast control of it in a divorce oftentimes attempt to wield power and influence at the courthouse. Every family lawyer has encountered those potential clients who cannot pay or replenish a retainer in a divorce or custody dispute, because they have little or often no access to the community estate and the other spouse controls the purse strings. Lawyers should not be dissuaded from representing these clients, however. With diligence and preparation, practitioners can often successfully obtain interim fees as well as a fee award at final trial in family law matters, which helps level the playing field. In order to accomplish this, counsel must first identify statutory grounds that will support a claim for attorney fees. Courts cannot award fees without the proper legal basis to do so. Below are several bases for recovery in various types of family law proceedings as well as requirements which must be met in order to obtain a vital fee award for your client.
Divorce
In a suit for divorce, the Texas Family Code provides that a party may seek and obtain interim fees from the other spouse in a temporary orders hearing, and/or legal fees at final trial as part of the division of the community estate.
