Actor Christina Ricci recently opened up about her divorce and how traumatic it was for her emotionally, physically, and financially. According to Yahoo! Life, Ricci and her former husband made claims of emotional and physical abuse during the divorce process. In fact, Ricci had to file a restraining order against her ex-spouse at one point.
In addition to the claims of physical and emotional abuse, Ricci faced a harsh financial reality during the divorce process. Reportedly, she had to sell some of her possessions, including her Chanel handbag collection, to afford to pay for the divorce. That’s because the divorce left her on the hook for alimony, child support, and a portion of her ex’s legal fees.
Can I Make My Ex Pay My Attorney Fees in Nevada?
In Nevada, there are some instances where the court will order one party to pay their ex-spouse’s attorney’s fees. However, that is not normally the case. Generally, it only happens for one of two reasons:
- Income Disparity – In this situation, the court may order that one party pays their ex-spouse’s attorney’s fees because there is a very wide income gap between the two former spouses. The reason that this might be the case is because one party might be a stay-at-home parent or simply have a job that doesn’t pay nearly as much as their high-earning ex-spouse’s job pays. The court does not want one party to have an advantage as far as legal representation goes because of financial reasons. So, they may have one party pay a portion of their ex’s legal fees (or all their legal fees) to ensure that both parties have equally priced legal representation.
- Unreasonable Claim – In this instance, if the court determines that the divorce claim that one of the parties made didn’t have reasonable grounds, they may order the party that made the claim to pay all or a portion of their ex-spouse’s legal fees as a penalty.
Additional factors that can impact whether the court will order one party to pay their former spouse’s attorney’s fees include:
- Which party filed for divorce
- Whether one or both parties asked the court to order their ex to pay their legal fees
Ultimately, whether one party must pay the other party’s legal fees is determined by the judge.
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