Chronicling the high cost of our legal system
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At the Tampa Bay Times, Leonora LaPeter Anton relates the gruesome details of one high-conflict, protracted divorce — not a celebrity or a very-high-net-worth case, just a couple with some resources that can’t stop wrangling in court. The system may be labeled “no-fault,” but no one would imagine from this case that it lives up to that billing.
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Michigan: “Lawyer Offers Free Valentine’s Day Divorce” [Newser, Walter Bentley site, Legal News]
“California Divorce Lawyer Is Charged in Plot to Bug Cars of Her Clients’ Spouses” [ABA Journal] “The indictment doesn’t mention allegations that have surfaced in civil suits claiming the spouses of Nolan’s clients were set up for drunken driving arrests by the private eye, Christopher Butler, the Contra Costa Times says.”
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Does same-sex marriage have any effect on wider social measures of family intactness? As the institution becomes more familiar — yesterday the GOP-run New Hampshire legislature declined 116-211 to repeal that state’s law — experience continues to suggest that there isn’t really a measurable effect: U.S. states such as Massachusetts and Iowa that recognize same-sex marriage boast some of the nation’s lowest rates of divorce and unwed childbearing, but that was also true before their law changed. I explain in a new post at Cato geared toward the current debate in Maryland.
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…break and enter into the house of your client’s husband to retrieve her possessions [Albuquerque lawyer Raymond Van Arnam, fined, sentenced to weekend jail time and ordered to pay restitution, but not deprived of his law license, on charges of misdemeanor criminal trespass and misdemeanor larceny; Above the Law]
Brian Sullivan in the ABA Journal recounts the Northern California saga (earlier) of fake winery events, honeytrap Match.com paramours and other ploys by which detectives hired by angry spouses would try to entrap hubbies into DUI arrests, with police connivance.
Because the best way to show that it’s Not About the Money is to ask for $200 million [TMZ]
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“After racking up more than $20 million in legal bills, the owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers has reportedly reached a $130 million settlement in his divorce case.” [Martha Neil, ABA Journal]
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“A whistle-blower tells how a private detective arranged for men to be arrested for drunk driving at the behest of their ex-wives and their lawyers — and that entrapment using decoys was only one of many alleged misdeeds.” [L.A. Times; Contra Costa County (Bay Area), Calif.]
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“Despite claims that she couldn’t work, rarely left home and rarely socialized because of injuries from a 1996 car accident, Dorothy McGurk, 43, was belly-dancing at home and in Manhattan for hours a day — and then spending several more hours a day blogging about [it].” Asked by a Facebook acquaintance why she wasn’t posting pictures of her dance adventures, McGurk said her ex, from whom she was demanding lifetime maintenance, “would love to fry me with that.” Her words sufficed, and Justice Catherine DiDomenico denied most of her maintenance claim as well as awarding the husband “60 percent from the sale of their house and thousands in legal fees for her ‘dilatory tactics.’” [Dareh Gregorian, New York Post]
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A Canadian judge loses his patience in a divorce case. [Lowering the Bar]
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Hedge-fund-backed lenders bankroll divorcing spouses. [New York Times, Marginal Revolution]
“It is hoped that the new mediation stage will reduce legal aid costs by up to £100 million, while fewer expert witnesses would be required to testify before the courts. … Judges would also be able to advise parents early into legal proceedings what the likely outcome would be, in an effort to force through an agreement and avoid long and expensive cases. ” [Telegraph]
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Glenn C. Lewis, a divorce lawyer who “boasts that he is the most expensive lawyer in the [Washington, D.C.] region,” sued a former client “for an additional $500,000 in fees and interest, although he’d already been paid $378,000.” Lewis says the case was a demanding one and that he earned the money fair and square, but things did not go particularly well for his cause before judges in suburban Fairfax County. [Washington Post via Above the Law]
Round-up from Urlesque consists of mostly familiar entries, including the classic “Hellhole You Call a Marriage” from Florida lawyer Steve Miller, who (LegalBlogWatch informs us) has changed the name of his firm from DivorceEZ.com to DivorceDeli.com.
Somehow they missed the following, from Washington attorney J. Michael Gallagher:
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Individual liberty, free markets, and peace: the world's premier libertarian think tank. Publishes Cato at Liberty, where I blog on contemporary policy issues.
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