Don’t Be The Victim Of An Expensive Divorce
Most of us read about other people’s divorces when it is in the newspapers or magazines. We know that celebrity divorces draw a lot of interest. I also read what in the legal industry they call “advance sheets”, monthly paperbacks that include the most recent cases coming out of the Washington State Court of Appeals and Supreme Court. I read these in order to stay up to date on what is happening in the courtroom so I can advise clients appropriately.
If you only read about one divorce, try this one, called The Million Dollar Botched Divorce::
What do you say about a couple that pays their attorneys a total of $7.4 million dollars in fees? Or about the lawyers willing to advise their clients to select a process that enables them to charge that much?
And they never made it through trial because when they showed up at court on the first day of trial the Wife’s attorney manufactured a mistrial that required the parties to come back another day. Who benefited from the mistrial? Not the husband or wife. Not the court. It was the attorneys who benefitted from their own misconduct, preserving their right to continue to charge their clients as they prepared for a second trial.
So how did this case resolve? By the parties choosing Collaborative Practice, when the husband, and then the wife, made the choice to take back the power and authority they had ceded to their respective attorneys. One of the attorneys responded by suing his own client for alleged unpaid fees.
Once free of their litigation attorneys the case resolved quickly because, unlike the litigation counsel who restricted conversation, the collaborative practitioners facilitated discussion between the parties and the parties found reasons to resolve their disagreements rather continuing to fight.
So read about the $100 Million Dollar Botched Divorce and know that, whether $7,000,000.00 or $7,000.00, it does NOT have to be yours. Take the time when considering what process to use in your divorce action to speak to a collaborative practitioner who can help you realize a process that allows YOU to be the focus, rather than your checkbook.
