How Flat Fee Divorce Works

The breakdown includes:

• $2,500; Legal service.
• $125; Divorce Mate software fee.
• $95; Cloud (encrypted and secure) storage and administration fee.
• $210; Court Filing Fee
• $25; Agency fees and/or CSO. We utilize court agents that we have worked with for almost 30 years. They stand in line at the courthouse and file documents, so you don’t have to pay your lawyer or our support staff to do it. 
• $150; Service of documents.
• $20; Printing, scanning, photocopies.
• $125; GST on legal fees.
• $175; PST on legal fees.
• $13.25; GST on disbursements.

• Accurately fill out the firm intake form in its electronic format.
• Provide your Pathway Legal lawyer with a written-out draft of your proposed agreement.
• In addition to your initial consultation, you agree to meet with your Pathway Legal lawyer up to two further instances to review and confirm the terms of the agreement, or document that is to be prepared.
• Fully and accurately fill out the asset and debt section of the financial statement form (with your paralegal's assistance if you wish).

• legal services for the purpose of drafting a comprehensive and legally binding separation agreement, which will address matters such as the division of your assets, your parenting plan, child support, spousal support, conduct, and any other relevant matter arising from your separation. For more on these subjects, please visit our Divorce with Children and Spousal Support sections.
  
• up to two (2) one-hour meetings with your Pathway Legal lawyer.
• an overview of the law as it relates to you and your unique circumstances.
• legal advice associated with your planned agreement, so you clearly understand your rights and responsibilities.
• prepare the agreement based on your instructions.
• communicate with opposing counsel or party, for up to 30 minutes. Your lawyer will make reasonable agreed-upon changes to the agreement in consultation with the other party, their lawyer, and you.
• attend with you to execute the agreement once finalized.
• execute the Certificate of Independent Legal Advice appended to your agreement.

1. Family court divorce filing fee:
   In the fees outlined above, you will see the family court divorce filing fee of $210. If we use BCRegistery.gov.ca (this was previously known as BC Online) to file documents, it is $7 per submission.
   
   Although we can’t avoid the expense of the family court divorce filing fee, we do try to save disbursements (also known as out-of-pocket expenses), in other ways. For example, if your ex is cooperative, they can come to our office in Victoria, B.C. to be served rather than us hiring a process server. These savings are passed on to you! 😊
   
2. EAP clients:
   Clients who are a part of the Employee Assistance Program, receive a 25% discount on the legal fee. So, instead of the legal fee component being $2500, it would be $1875.
   
3. Prior Pathway clients also receive a 25% discount.
   
4. EAP client AND an existing Pathway client:
   You receive another 25% off the legal fees. So a whopping 50% discount on the legal fees making it $1250, instead of $2,500.

If your matter becomes complicated (e.g., if your ex does not co-operate), additional fees will apply for your lawyer’s time billed at their hourly rate. You will always need to discuss the fee structure at your initial visit with your lawyer and the fee structure will be laid out for you in writing before commencing the next steps.