Awards may rest on disparate financial circumstances, ensuring both parties can retain counsel, or on sanctionable conduct including bad faith litigation and discovery abuse.
Interim awards are available during the proceeding.
Alternative Names:
Family Law Fee Award|Need-Based Fee Award
Why it Matters?
Need-based interim awards level access to counsel where one spouse controls the finances, and requesting them early rather than at conclusion is what makes representation viable for the non-monied spouse. Conduct-based awards operate independently and reach unreasonable litigation regardless of relative resources, which gives the monied spouse exposure for aggressive tactics that need-based analysis alone would not create.
Frequently Confused with
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
When should need-based awards be sought?
What exposure do conduct-based awards create?
