Hi M.,
$5000 retainer does sound high to me too, and I recently went through a divorce. It does depend on the lawyer and the county you live in though how much it costs. If you are in Tarrant County, Diane Wanger is supurb - especially in cases where the husband makes most of the money. She also does work for abused women. There are sliding scale lawyers for ladies who have no current job that are put in a divorce situation. You should not suffer more from a bad lawyer and a bad settlement on top of the "nice" situation you have been dealt here. Do make sure that any lawyer you get has a good reputation as a family law specialist and a divorce lawyer though. My ex-husband hired a criminal lawyer who knew nothing about family law, and it cost us both a mint in lawyer fees as he would not settle due to bad and incorrect advice on the part of his lawyer. We had to go through court and he was even going to appeal when he lost (rarely a good idea)!!! The Best to you, and I hope this has helped some. I did my other divorce papers myself and we agreed on all points, so it cost a grand total of $200, so this last one was a real shocker. Using an attorney if you agree on everything should not cost over $2500, and Diane was going to do mine for $1000 until the ex hooked up with his "Dateline Lawyer". It ended up costing me about $15000, and who knows how much it cost him in lawyer fees. I charged most of mine though, and he had to pay half of my credit card bills, so that did not hurt nearly as much ;)
D.