If what is keeping you from calling a lawyer is the bill, that is worth saying out loud rather than working around. Missouri does let a court order one spouse to contribute to the other’s legal fees. It is not the default, it is not automatic, and there is one situation where it stops being discretionary altogether.
Who Pays Attorney Fees in Divorce in Missouri?
As a starting point each person pays their own lawyer, and a Missouri court has discretion to shift some or all of those fees to the other spouse under RSMo 452.355.
Two things follow from that word discretion. A request costs you nothing to make, which is why most attorneys plead it as a matter of course so that it stays available. And you should not build your plans around getting it, because the statute makes it something a court may do rather than something it must.
What Are the 3 Factors in a Missouri Fee Award?
The statute names three, inside a list it says is not exhaustive.
RSMo 452.355 says the court, “after considering all relevant factors including the financial resources of both parties, the merits of the case and the actions of the parties during the pendency of the action, may order a party to pay a reasonable amount for the cost to the other party of maintaining or defending any proceeding.”
- The financial resources of both parties. A real gap in income or assets is the most common reason fees get shifted at all.
- The merits of the case. Whether a position was reasonable to take in the first place.
- The actions of the parties during the pendency of the action. How each side has behaved while the case has been running.
Note that “all relevant factors including” makes that a floor rather than a ceiling, the same construction Missouri uses for property division. A court is not limited to the three.
Does Cheating or Marital Misconduct Get You Fees?
Not through this statute. The third factor is about conduct in the litigation, not conduct in the marriage.
This distinction gets blurred a lot and it is worth keeping straight. Running up costs, missing deadlines, hiding documents, taking positions that go nowhere, ignoring orders. Those are actions during the pendency of the action.
An affair is not. Conduct during the marriage is a factor in how property gets divided under RSMo 452.330, which is a different statute answering a different question. Our page on division of property covers that side.
When Are Attorney Fees Mandatory in Missouri?
When the case involves a failure to pay child support, the statute stops saying may and starts saying shall.
RSMo 452.355.2 covers “any proceeding in which the failure to pay child support pursuant to a temporary order or final judgment is an issue.” If the court finds the obligor “has failed, without good cause, to comply with such order or decree to pay the child support, the court shall order the obligor, if requested and for good cause shown, to pay a reasonable amount for the cost of the suit to the obligee.”
Two conditions inside that sentence do the work.
- It has to be requested. A court is not going to award it on its own initiative, so it has to be asked for.
- Good cause is defined narrowly. RSMo 452.355.4 describes good cause as a substantial reason the obligor is unable to pay, and says it does not exist where the obligor “purposely maintains” that inability. Choosing to stay unable to pay is not an excuse.
So if you are chasing unpaid child support, fees are a much stronger part of your case than they are in an ordinary divorce. Our pages on child support and on support modifications cover the wider picture.
Does Conduct Before You Filed Count?
In St. Louis County, yes. The local rule reaches back before the case existed.
Rule 68.3.4 says that “Actions or conduct in anticipation of litigation or that occur prior to filing, that would otherwise be a violation of Rule 68.3 upon the filing, are discouraged by the Court and may be considered by the Court in the award of attorney fees pursuant to Mo. Rev. Stat. § 452.355, the division of the property and debts pursuant to Mo. Rev. Stat. § 452.330, and the award of temporary maintenance pursuant to Mo. Rev. Stat. § 452.315.”
Read that alongside the statute and something practical falls out. The statute looks at conduct during the case. **The local rule invites the court to look at what you did in the weeks before you filed.**
Rule 68.3 is the automatic order that takes effect on filing. Among other things it restricts closing or modifying accounts and credit lines, incurring extraordinary debt, and cancelling insurance. So emptying an account or running up a card just ahead of filing, on the theory that the order had not started yet, is not the loophole it appears to be. It is one of the things a court may weigh when deciding who pays whose lawyer.
If your case is in the City of St. Louis, St. Charles County or Jefferson County, the local rules differ and are worth confirming directly. Our page on the St. Louis County Family Court covers how that court runs.
How Does a Fee Award Actually Work in Practice?
You still pay your own lawyer. An award generally reimburses you for what you have already paid rather than sparing you from paying it.
This is the part that surprises people most, so it is worth being blunt about.
- Your fee agreement is with your lawyer, not with your spouse. A typical agreement makes you responsible for your own bill regardless of what the court later orders.
- A fee award arrives at the end, if at all. It does not fund the case while it is running.
- Awards are usually partial. The statute says “a reasonable amount,” not all of it.
- Collecting it is a separate exercise from being awarded it.
So a fee request is worth making and is a poor thing to rely on.
Should You Count on Getting Fees Awarded?
No. Plan on paying your own way and treat a fee award as an upside rather than a budget line.
The statute is written as discretion for ordinary cases. That makes fee shifting the exception, and the exception generally needs something specific behind it, whether a real disparity in resources, a position that should never have been taken, or conduct that ran the cost up.
We would rather tell you that at the start than have you discover it at the end. If somebody quotes you a likelihood of getting your fees paid, ask them what they are basing it on.
What If You Genuinely Cannot Afford a Lawyer?
Say so in the first conversation, because there are more options on the table than people assume and most of them need to be raised early.
- Ask that the fee request be pleaded from the start. It costs nothing and it has to be in the case to be available at the end.
- Ask about temporary relief. Where there is a real income gap, requests made while the case is pending are a separate question from the final fee award.
- Ask what the realistic range is for your case, not the worst case. Not every matter is a contested trial.
- Consider whether the case can stay out of a courtroom. An uncontested divorce or mediation costs a fraction of a contested one, and for many families it is the right answer on the merits as well as the cost.
- Do not let cost stop you from asking. An initial conversation about what your case actually involves is the cheapest thing you will do.
Who Can Help With Fees in a St. Louis Divorce?
The useful early conversation is about what your case is likely to cost and where a fee request realistically fits, rather than about whether your spouse can be made to pay for everything.
Bardol Law Firm practices only family law, and we are in the Clayton, St. Louis City, St. Charles and Jefferson County courts regularly. Tell us what you are dealing with and what you can manage, and we will be straight with you about both, including when a fee request is worth pleading and when it is unlikely to go anywhere. Our other family law questions and answers cover the rest.
Every client gets a named paralegal on the file, and we generally return calls within one business day. Call 314.918.0100 or reach us through our contact page. Family Law, Simplified. Fill out the form or call to set up a consultation.
This page is general information about Missouri law and is not legal advice. Every case turns on its own facts. The choice of a lawyer is an important decision and should not be based solely upon advertisements.