STREET LIGHT: Many Oklahomans can’t afford a divorce attorney. That can make it harder to leave abusive relationships.

By: Mollie Bryant

Date: December 16, 2024

Many Oklahomans seeking a divorce can’t afford an attorney, and for domestic violence survivors, lacking legal representation can make it harder to leave abusive relationships.

In Oklahoma, an estimated 52% of women and 28% of men have experienced intimate partner violence, including sexual or physical violence and stalking, according to a 2023 analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“It’s so rampant, and without access to the courts, a lot of times they’re stuck,” said Kelly Masters-Newton, legal director for Palomar Family Justice Center, which provides wraparound services to domestic violence survivors in Oklahoma City. “Having access to pro se forms, being able to represent themselves in court and having a judiciary that’s open to that would help those statistics.”

Being a pro se litigant—representing yourself in court—is especially challenging in Oklahoma, which lacks public resources to help navigate divorces in almost every county. And according to a report from the Oklahoma Access to Justice Foundation, 90% of divorce cases in the state have at least one party who lacks legal representation. The report found that neither party has an attorney in 40% of Oklahoma’s divorce cases.

Elaine Dunlap is a Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma staff attorney who is embedded at the Family Safety Center in Tulsa and provides family law services to domestic violence survivors. She said legal issues like divorce, child custody and protective orders often are barriers to leaving abusive relationships.

“When you don’t have the financial resources to hire an attorney to be able to walk you through that process, it’s almost impossible In Oklahoma to get a divorce without legal assistance,” Dunlap said.

For abuse survivors, divorces are complex and dangerous.

Even for attorneys, divorces can be complicated and time-consuming. People representing themselves are unlikely to know about things like fee waivers for low-income litigants or how to prepare the documents they need to file a divorce.

For abuse survivors, the legal picture is more challenging to navigate because domestic violence affects things like child custody during a divorce. Their cases are not only more complex but can be dangerous. Masters-Newton said her clients are at the highest risk when they file court actions.

“You’re already nervous because you may not be believed, you may be blamed for your abuse, and you’re also worried about your safety and your family’s safety,” she said. “Then you’re navigating a system most people find confusing and overwhelming, and so without proper access to the courts, a lot of our clients will choose to stay versus a pro se option.”

In any civil case where one party has an attorney and the other doesn’t, there’s a power imbalance. During divorces involving domestic violence, that imbalance is especially fraught when a survivor doesn’t have a divorce attorney, but their abuser does.

Dunlap said: “Having to walk into a courtroom alone with someone who’s abused you without legal representation or advocacy can be daunting to the point where a victim may agree to something that they might not normally agree to or be bullied or coerced into signing an agreement that is not in their or their children’s best interest because of that power imbalance that already exists between the parties.”

How much does a divorce cost in Oklahoma?

At Palomar, Masters-Newton connects clients to pro bono and low bono attorneys. She said few attorneys in Oklahoma provide these free or low-cost services and the need for them far outweighs what’s available. (The American Bar Association recommends attorneys devote at least 50 hours per year to pro bono work, but a 2018 survey of 47,000 lawyers found that only about 20% met that goal.)

Most Oklahoma divorce attorneys require retainers around $2,500 to $5,000, according to the Oklahoma Access to Justice study.

“That is debilitating for our clients,” Masters-Newton said. “There’s just no way they could ever afford that.”

The study found that after retainers, legal costs for a contested divorce—where the parties don’t agree on the terms of the divorce, such as property division or child custody—can range from $5,000 to $20,000.

And divorce cases come with court costs. In Oklahoma, filing a divorce costs at least $250 without a fee waiver, also called a pauper’s affidavit. People representing themselves in court also have to find court forms, which can cost hundreds of dollars. They might face additional costs for things like parenting classes or urinalysis.

“All of these things add up, plus you may not have a place to live or access to transportation,” Masters-Newton said. “So when you’re looking at the cost of an attorney, sometimes that is low on your list regarding what you need to get immediately.”

Standard divorce forms could help Oklahomans navigate courts without an attorney.

Unlike most states, Oklahoma doesn’t have standardized divorce forms that county courts make available to the public.

Oklahoma and Tulsa counties are the only two in Oklahoma that offer divorce packets, the Oklahoma Access to Justice report said.

Katie Dilks, executive director of the Oklahoma Access to Justice Foundation, said most other states have court-approved divorce forms, even if they don’t provide forms for a wide range of civil cases.

“A lot of them have just realized divorce is very common, very basic, necessary and has always had really high numbers of unrepresented folks, so you have to make the forms available just to give the courts a fighting chance to do their jobs,” Dilks said. “Otherwise, half their job is shepherding people through a process when they don’t know what’s going on and they don’t have the tools to navigate it.”

Some people exploit the lack of standard forms. The Oklahoma County Law Library sells court-approved divorce forms for $20 to $40, but the Access to Justice report said that for the last eight years, two people soliciting paralegal services inside or near the law library have sold unreliable divorce forms for $300 to $400 to people representing themselves in court.

Dilks said Oklahoma courts would benefit from self-help centers that could be as simple as a computer where people could fill out and print common divorce forms.

“You would know that they’re right,” she said. “You’d know they’re accessible, and it would make the jobs of the court staff and the clerks there so much easier because you’re not having people constantly get frustrated with you that they’re asking for things that you don’t have to deliver.”

Dunlap said domestic violence survivors need more than access to divorce forms because people representing themselves are unlikely to know about the nuances of how domestic violence laws could affect their case, including protections for children during custody actions and the ability to ask the court to order their abuser to pay their legal fees. She argued that there should be more funding to support attorneys assisting domestic violence survivors pro bono.

“Preparing paperwork or even having access to legal clinics where divorce forms could be prepared would be a step in the right direction, but when the case has become contested, it’s not enough,” Dunlap said.

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Contact Streetlight editor Mollie Bryant at 405-990-0988 or [email protected]. Follow her reporting by joining our newsletter.

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