If you hire an attorney, he/she will likely charge you on an hourly basis, and those rates change from attorney to attorney. If you decide to file the lawsuit yourself, it will likely cost about $200 to file the actual lawsuit. However, with $38,000 at stake, I would not recommend trying to do this yourself - it is worth it to at least talk with an attorney on the front end.
I'm sorry to hear about your situation, and wish you good luck going forward. -Jay Mills
Answered on Sep 07th, 2012 at 10:18 AM